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Contributor : Profile

Name Surname

Jean-Marie Baland

University of Namur
jean-marie.baland@unamur.be

Jean-Marie Baland is a Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Namur. He belongs to the Center for Research on Development Economics (CRED). His research interests include the analysis of informal institutions in less developed economies and the consequences of poverty.

His most recent research projects include the impact and the sustainability of microcredit organisations (mainly in India); the economic impact of electoral corruption; the microeconomic determinants of the deforestation in the Himalaya and the analysis of solidarity networks in Africa. In the past, he has done field work on informal groups in the slum of Kibera in Kenya, on the functioning of land markets in Uganda, on deforestation in the Indian Himalayas and on self-help groups in India. Since 2009, he benefits from an ERC advanced grant in support of his research on social capital and informal contracts.

Posts by Jean-Marie Baland

Socially disadvantaged groups and microfinance in India

The benefits of microfinance are in the details. This column takes a look at lending by commercial banks in India to self-help groups – smaller, informal community-based groups – as a new and succ...

  • Perspectives

Deforestation in the Himalayas: Myths and reality

It is widely believed that the extent of deforestation in developing countries is large and growing over time, and that this has significant adverse effects on local livelihoods. This column presents...

  • Articles

Exploratory research on the impact of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, on deforestation, tribal welfare, and poverty, with implications for implementation

When the United Progressive Alliance came to power in the Indian general elections of May 2004, it published a Common Minimum Programme in which it promised to end the eviction of tribal and other for...

  • IGC Research on India