معرفی
Bert D'Espallier is a Professor at KU Leuven's Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), based in the Finance Research Group at the Brussels campus. He serves on the FEB Council and Campus Council FEB Brussels, contributing to institutional governance.
His research centers on microfinance and informal savings groups, examining financial/social performance, ethical dilemmas in hybrid organizations, and gender dynamics. Key areas include sustainable finance, donor impacts on social enterprises, and development finance, with emphasis on financial inclusion and poverty alleviation through community-based finance mechanisms.
Recent publications (2024-2025) reveal a cohesive research program using advanced methodologies (survival analysis, machine learning, longitudinal studies) to analyze savings groups globally. Dominant themes include autonomy-performance relationships, sustainability determinants, and social potential of informal finance, bridging finance, development economics, and social impact assessment.
No scientific awards were documented in the provided sources.
D'Espallier supervises 5 PhD students (2 at KU Leuven, 3 at University of Agder) and leads multiple funded projects including 'Contextual performance of informal financial associations' (2020-2025) and 'Sabbatical for informal savings groups research' (SAB/22/036), supported by FWO grants and development industry partnerships.
He collaborates with the CERCEM research group at UiA (Norway) and leverages the SAVIX-VSLA database for large-scale analysis of savings groups, actively engaging with development organizations to translate research into policy.
