Lore Vandewalle and Yi Huang to pursue finance research abroad.

Assistant Professor of International Economics Lore Vandewalle has been awarded a grant by the Norwegian Research Council to study the financial lives of the poor in India. A significant proportion of the households, especially in rural areas of the country, are outside the coverage of the formal banking system. Recent advances in mobile technology provide an opportunity to expand access to formal financial services. Villagers can save, transfer money to other users and receive payments from the government at their doorstep. Professor Vandewalle, with Vincent Somville of the Chr. Michelsen Institute, and Basix Sub-K, an initiative providing financial services to the financially excluded in India, will examine the poor’s interaction with formal and informal financial institutions, their savings behaviour and the effects of cash versus electronic payments on household finances.

Assistant Professor Yi Huang was recently chosen to pursue a fellowship at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Beginning in mid-June, he will spend a month at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research (HKIMR) studying capital flows and the role of Hong Kong as an offshore centre as well as the internationalisation of Chinese currency. Professor Cédric Tille of the Insititute previously held a fellowship at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Stefan Gerlach, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and holder of a PhD from the Institute, was formerly Executive Director of Research at the HKIMR.

Professor Huang, along with Emeritus Professor Alexander Swoboda and Retired Professor Hans Genberg, also recently represented the Institute at an international conference on capital flows and safe assets in Shanghai hosted by the Shanghai Forum, the Financial Research Centre (Fudan University), the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the Graduate Institute.

Professors Vandewalle and Huang joined the Institute during the 2012-2013 academic year and are both holders of Pictet Chairs in Finance and Development affiliated to the Institute’s Centre for Finance and Development, created in November 2012.