Steve DeLoach, professor of economics, gave a research presentation to faculty at the Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowia on April 8.
Elon and the Love School of Business have a cooperative relationship with UEK to exchange students each semester.
DeLoach presented his work, co-authored by former student Erika Lamanna (’09), on the impact of microfinance on child health outcomes in Indonesia during a period that spanned the Asian financial crisis. Lamanna is currently a graduate student in economics at Vanderbilt University. The project was generously supported by grants from the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, the Rawls Scholar program, and the Love School of Business.
The pair found that children in villages that gained access to microfinancial institutions grew significantly faster in terms of height than children who already had and maintained, or lost such access. They suspect that the reason is the enhanced economic power of women and/or social capital generated by the arrival of lending institutions that target the country’s poorest citizens.
The paper was recently accepted for publication in the journal World Development in 2012.