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Center for Research in Development Economics (CRED)

The CRED is a research entity dedicated to the study of development economics. More specifically, researchers work on issues related to micro-institutions, collective action, market development and political economy. Much of CRED's research is based on first-hand data collected by researchers in numerous countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Theoretical and empirical work is regularly produced by a team of 6 permanent academic researchers as well as 10 to 15 PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.
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Center for Research in Finance and Management (CeReFiM)

The CeReFiM studies issues of finance and macroeconomics. In recent years, several research programs have been conducted on specific topics such as complex financial systems, sustainable finance and systemic risk in the mutual fund industry. In most cases, research questions are approached from an empirical perspective using modern econometric techniques. Currently, CeReFiM consists of a balanced group of senior and junior members who work in close collaboration with each other, as well as with academics and financial practitioners from numerous universities and financial institutions in Belgium and abroad.
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The theses

Theses in progress AGBA Komlan (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: Essays in international Finance (Supervisor: GNABO Jean-Yves; Co-supervisor: BENANNI Hamza) ALVAREZ Pablo (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays on development economics with a focus on gender inequality (Supervisor: GUIRKINGER Catherine) ALVAREZ Pablo (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays on development economics with a focus on gender inequality (Supervisor: GUIRKINGER Catherine) AYACHI Syrine (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: Essays on green bonds BARAKA KUSINZA Doux (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays in gender economics (Supervisor: GUIRKINGER Catherine)DEBROISE Auguste (CERPE) | Thesis title: Essays on behavioral political economicsERNAELSTEEN Christophe (CERPE) | Thesis title: Essays in public economics and regional competitiveness (Supervisor: DEJARDIN Marcus) FERRONI Giorgio (CERPE) | Thesis title: Essays on platforms and sharing economy (Supervisor: TOULEMONDE Éric)GUEBEN Marine (CRED) | Thesis title: To Be AnnouncedJOLIVET Anna (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays in development economics and household decision-making (Supervisor: GUIRKINGER Catherine)LÜLLE Angela (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays in Development EconomicsMOHAMED SULIMAN Ammar (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: To Be AnnouncedPEREZ RIAZA Baptiste (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: Essays on Crypto-assets and financial stability (Supervisor: GNABO Jean-Yves)RENK Andréa (CRED) | Thesis title: Essays on institutional change in India and Nepal (Supervisor: BALAND Jean-Marie)RICHARD Quentin (CRED) | Thesis title: Intergenerational transmission of life expectancy (Supervisor: GUIRKINGER Catherine ; Co-supervisor: BALAND Jean-Marie)SCHRAVERUS Louise (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: Three essays on Sovereign Wealth Funds SOUDANT Joey (CeReFiM) | Thesis title: Applications of complex systems in macro-finance topicsTCHINDA Charlie (CERPE) | Thesis title: Essays in the economics of self-employment (Supervisor: DEJARDIN Marcus) Past theses All theses completed in the last five academic years.2022-2023BAILY Camille: Climate Change: Impact and Challenges for the Financial SystemBHARTI Nitin: Essays on Socio-Economic Inequality and Development in India and China: A Historical & Institutional PerspectiveFARÈ Luca: Entrepreneurship, Small Businesses' Innovation and ContextsLEDRU François-Xavier: On the financial attributes of impact investments and the behavior of socially minded agentsMANUEL Clarice: Essays on women empowerment and norms in developing countries: the case of Nepal and the PhilippinesWOITRIN François: Three Essays on Mechanism Design and Family Economics2021-2022BEQUET Ludovic: Essays on agricultural productivity and intrahousehold dynamics in the PhilippinesKITUMBA Guylord: Coping strategies by microentrepreneurs in Kinshasa2020-2021DAYE Modeste: Essays in Development Economics: On Agents' Prosocial and Financial Behaviors. Supervisors: Profs. Romain Houssa and Paul Reding.2019-2020MICHELS Anne: Migration and Bequest Decisions: Theory and Evidence from the Bolivian Altiplano. Supervisor: Prof. Jean-Philippe Platteau.VANHOMWEGEN Henri: Distinctives Strategies in the Equity Mutual Funds Industry. Supervisors: Profs. Jean-Yves Gnabo and Oscar Bernal.2018-2019MOHIMONT Jolan: Business Cycles and Monetary Policy in a Small Open Emerging Economy. Supervisor: Prof. Romain Houssa.LAURENT Hélène: Essays in Public and Entrepreneurship Economics: Taxation and Corruption. Supervisor: Prof. Marcus Dejardin.HUBERT Olivier: Heterogeneous Effects of Fiscal Policy on Sovereign Yields. Supervisor: Prof. Romain Houssa.GROSS Jérémie: Individual and Family Behavior in Poor Households: Evidence from Semi-Arid Burkina Faso. Supervisors: Profs. Catherine Guirginger and Jean-Philippe Platteau.DELMEZ Françoise: Jobless Recoveries: No Jobs for the Unemployed, Longer Hours for Workers? Supervisor: Prof. Alain de Crombrugghe.2017-2018DAHLQVIST Carl-Henrik: Essays in Econophysics and Applied Econometrics: Modeling Complexity in Finance. Supervisors: Profs. Jean-Yves Gnabo and Sophie Béreau.SCHOLTES Nicolas: Interbank Networks and Financial Stability. Supervisors: Profs. Jean-Yves Gnabo and Sophie Béreau.2016-2017GONNE Nicolas: Consequences of Firm-Level Heterogeneity for Corporate Financial and Tax Policy. Supervisor: Prof. Eric Toulemonde.SIMILON Astrid: Essays on the Economics of Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Supervisor: Prof. Gani Aldashev.MERGESA Kelbesa: Government Finances and Financial Shocks in Developing Economies. Supervisor: Prof. Romain Houssa.GERACI Marco: Essays on Complexity in the Financial System. Supervisors: Profs. Jean-Yves Gnabo and Davy Paindaveine.
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Working documents

Following are links to working papers from the DeFiPP Research Institute. This series of working papers was launched in September 2021.
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The Master's degree specializing in sustainable development management and economics: a program rooted in contemporary issues

For more than 30 years, the Department of Flexible Scheduling at the Faculty of Economics, Management, Communication, and Political Science (EMCP) at the University of Namur has been helping adults returning to school to acquire new skills. In 2023, the Department launched a brand-new program: a Master's degree specializing in sustainable development management and economics. This one-year program addresses environmental and societal challenges by training professionals to support the ecological and economic transition. 
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Economy: Why Are More African Women Converting to New Christian Churches?

New Christian churches are experiencing spectacular growth, particularly in Africa. While they are attracting a growing number of followers, it is notable that women are joining them far more often than men. Catherine Guirkinger, a professor and researcher in development economics, examines this gendered phenomenon of religious conversion and the economic mechanisms underlying it. This original research has just received prestigious WelCHANGE funding through the 2025 call for proposals from the F.R.S-FNRS. 
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Axel Tixhon, scientific guarantor of a historic augmented reality project

This is a first in Wallonia! The Citadelle de Dinant now offers an augmented reality tour that plunges visitors right into the heart of its history. At the helm: the French company Histovery, specializing in heritage reconstructions, with scientific support from Axel Tixhon, professor in the History Department at UNamur.
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International Conference - Memory(ies) and Political Competition in the Roman World (3rd century BC - 4th century AD)

The study of memory phenomena in ancient societies has been a growing field of research since the 1990s, and has been particularly dynamic over the last decade. Awareness of the impact of memory, due to its plasticity, on social and political actors in the ancient world opens up new perspectives for analyzing attested phenomena and events. The conference proposes to study the use of memory and its specific dynamics in the context of political competition, in various spheres and covering a broad chronological framework, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, with the aim of encouraging dialogue between respective specialists.Organizers: Simon Lambert (F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow), Pierre Assenmaker (Professor, UNamur), and Françoise Van Haeperen (Full Professor, UCLouvain)Information and registration: simon.lambert@unamur.be
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A prestigious FNRS prize in the social sciences for Professor Jean-Marie Baland

The FNRS has awarded the five-year Ernest-John Solvay Prize in the Social Sciences to Jean-Marie Baland, Professor in the Department of Economics at UNamur's EMCP Faculty and co-founder of the DeFiPP Institute's Centre de Recherche en Economie du Développement (CRED). A major accolade for a career devoted to the study of poverty, informal institutions and sustainable development..
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Founding, building, praying. The origins of Cistercian abbeys in the Southern Netherlands (13th century)

The success of female Cistercian monasticism in the Southern Netherlands in the 13th century - over forty houses in the dioceses of Liège and Cambrai - is a powerful indicator of the aspirations of a society in transformation, enthusiastic about new forms of spirituality and religious life. For all that, the phenomenon remains surprisingly little studied, despite the wealth of archaeological and historical sources. The program Thursday, December 11, 20259:30am: Welcome10:00am: Introduction by the symposium organizing committeeSession 1 - Chair: Marie-Élisabeth Henneau (Université de Liège)10:30am: Alexis Grélois (Université de Rouen-Normandie, GRHis) - L'appartenance des moniales à l'ordre cistercien (XIIe-XIIIe siècle): False debates and real questions11:30am: Coffee break11:45am: Michel Dubuisson (Abbaye de Villers asbl), Patrice Gautier (Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire), Louise Hardenne (Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire) - L'abbaye de La Cambre dans la filiation villersoise12:35pm: Lunch breakSession 2 - Chair: Jeroen Deploige (Universiteit Gent)1:40pm: Marie-Christine Laleman (City of Ghent), Els De Paermentier (Universiteit Gent)- The Byloque Abbey in Ghent: between archaeological memory and archival wealth2:30pm: Pierre-Hugues Tilmant (SPW, AWaP), Marie Verbeek (SPW, AWaP), Sarah Cremer (Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique), Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani (Université de Namur/Archives de l'État à Namur)- Dossier de fondation de l'abbaye Notre-Dame du Vivier: l'archéologie permet-elle lever un coin du voile?3:20pm: Coffee break3:40pm: François De Vriendt (Société des Bollandistes) - Memory and devotion in the female communities of Hainaut and Namurois. What place for local figures and traditions?4:30pm:Robin Moens (FWO/KU Leuven) - (What) spiritual walls? The spirituality of mulieres religiosae enclosed in and outside monastic space17:20: end of first day18:00: verre de l'amitié offered by SPWFriday, December 12, 2025Session 3 - Chair: Geneviève Laurent (SPW, AWaP)9:00: Philippe Mignot (SPW, AWaP) - Clairefontaine Abbey: archaeological data on the origins9:50am: Vincent Debonne (Vlaamse Overheid-Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed), Robin Moens (FWO/KU Leuven)- Sisters a little slower than we thought. The Cistercian abbey of Val-des-Vierges near Oudenaarde10:40am: Coffee break11:00am: visit to the former abbey of Notre-Dame du Vivier, accompanied by AWaP archaeologists12:00pm: lunch breakSession 4 - Chair: Mathieu Piavaux (Université de Namur)1:00 pm: Virginie Boulez (SPW, AWaP), Alain Marchandisse (FNRS/Université de Liège) - La Paix-Dieu 1240-1244. Foundation of a Cistercian abbey under the episcopacy of Robert de Thourotte. Dialogue of historical and archaeological sources13:50: Marie Demelenne (Musée royal de Mariemont), Patrice Gautier (Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire), Jean-François Nieus (FNRS/Université de Namur)- The hermit, the lady and the clerics. Aux origines de l'abbaye de L'Olive (Morlanwelz)2:40pm: coffee break3:00pm: Emmanuel Bodart (Archives de l'État à Namur) - L'abbaye de Félixpré près de Givet. New revelations on its foundation and endowment (1246-1266)3:30pm: Paul Lambrechts (Herita vzw) - Herkenrode Abbey, a millennium of history: how to interpret myths, excavations and sources, and how to incorporate them into a project for the future?4:00 pm: Benoît Rouzeau (Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Trame UR 4284/ LAMOP UMR 858)- General conclusions4:30 pm: end of symposiumProgram in PDF format Organizing committee Aurore Carlier - Société archéologique de NamurPatrice Gautier - Musées royaux d'Art et d'HistoireXavier Hermand - Université de NamurFiona Lebecque - Société archéologique de NamurJean-François Nieus - FNRS/Université de NamurMatthieu Pignot - FNRS/Université de NamurNicolas Ruffini-Ronzani - Université de Namur/Archives de l'ÉtatPierre-Hugues Tilmant - SPW, AWaPMarie Verbeek - SPW, AWaP Practical information The Study Days organizing committee would like to thank the owners of the Abbey Notre-Dame du Vivier for their welcome and for making the premises available.Surrounding these Study Days revolves a multitude of events dedicated to the Abbey Notre-Dame du Vivier de Marche-les-Dames. To find out more, see the program at www.lasan.be I register it
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Fernand Peloux (CNRS/University of Toulouse)

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Laetitia Ciccolini (Sorbonne University)

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