Postal address: Nationalekonomiska institutionen, Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Visiting address: Ekonomikum, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 B, 4 fl.
Web page: http://www.nek.uu.se/
Contact person: Associate Professor Ranjula Bali Swain, phone: +46 (0)18 471 11 30. Personal web page.
Research connected to South Asia
Besides working as Associate Professor (Docent) at Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Ranjula Bali Swain is also a Visiting Professor to the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets at the Stockholm School of Economics and a Professor of Economics at Södertörn University. She is also affiliated to the Center for European Research in Microfinance at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Her main research interests are in environmental economics, microeconometrics and development economics.
Her current projects (funded by Vetenskapsrådet (VR) and Formas) are on Economic Resilience and Sustainability and data-driven approach to analyse dynamical systems in economics. The main objective of the project on Economic Resilience and Sustainability is to model and test the theory of dynamic welfare and sustainability analysis while taking into account the value of ecosystem resilience.
The VR funded ‘Development Space’ project uses data-driven approach to develop an index for measuring sustainable development that integrates the ‘core pillars’ of growth as defined by the post-2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Another project quantifies the gap between the scientifically stipulated target for Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and our model’s predicted GHG emissions by 2020, to test mechanisms to suggest policy options to reduce this gap in the foreseeable future.
She has also published extensively on microfinance with several scientific articles and a book, The Microfinance Impact (Taylor and Francis Books: Routledge, London and New York, 2012). Bali Swain has a Doctorate in Economics from Uppsala University, and has worked for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Geneva in the past.
Active in Uppsala University’s Forum for South Asian Studies (FSAS), she is currently (since January 2014) also the chairperson of Uppsala University’s Forum for South Asian Studies (FSA) board. More information.
Bali Swain’s book, The Microfinance Impact was published by Taylor and Francis Books: Routledge, London and New York, in 2012. More information about the book.
The book was very well received and released at the IAFFE Annual International Conference in Barcelona, Spain and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Stockholm, Sweden.
Bali Swain’s main research interest has been an investigation of financial inclusion through microfinance, which has become a powerful force in improving the living conditions of citizens in South Asia and across the globe. In particular, she has evaluated the impact of the Self Help Groups Bank Linkage program in India on vulnerability, assets, income, training and women empowerment. Using global data, she further investigates how competition and interest rate affects the outreach and sustainability of Microfinance Institutions.
In her recent research, she models and tests the theory of dynamic welfare and sustainability analysis while taking into account the value of ecosystem resilience, in various eco-systems. The aim of the project is to estimate the accounting prices for ecosystems by taking into account resilience services and assess the role of resilience for sustainability. The project analyzes the time series data on certain critical natural resources stocks to identify potential thresholds over different areas, and conduct scenario analyses. Applying the resilience pricing theory, the accounting prices of identified critical natural resource stocks for both resource use and resilience services are estimated. Together with the dynamic trends of the resources, the project makes spatial and dynamic welfare comparisons to assess the degree of sustainability.
Bali Swain is also engaged in inter-disciplinary research in Mathematics, Statistics and Economics. Using dynamical systems theory to analyze global data including data from South Asia, she examines the historical relationship between changes in a country’s economic performance and greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting policies for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in the post-2015 scenario. The project further investigates the relation between economic growth, fertility, child mortality and education.
For further details on her research and publications check: https://mp.uu.se/en/web/profilsidor/start/-/emp/N94-1965
Earlier research
Ranjula Bali Swain defended her doctoral dissertation entitled ”Demand, Segmentation and Rationing in the Rural Credit Markets of Puri, India”, at the department on 4 April 2001. Faculty opponent was Dr Sonia Bhalotra, Senior Economist at Cambridge University, UK. Read the abstract.
In August 2002, she was given a SASNET planning grant for a research project on “Feminization of Debt: Women Empowerment and Social Impact of Microfinance in South Asia.” The project developed into a major research project entitled “Microfinance, Poverty and Vulnerability – Beyond the Myth”, financed by Sida/SAREC from 2002. The empirical research and survey work for this research was being conducted in five different states of India in collaborative support from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in India and the University of Delhi.
In November 2005 Dr. Bali Swain received SEK 1.2 Million as a three-years (2006-08) research grant from Sida/SAREC for a project entitled ”Can Insurance Markets work for the Poor? A Study of Microinsurance in India”. Using Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Orissa Milk Federation’s (OMFED) innovative program of health, life and cattle insurance as case studies from India – this project investigated if microinsurance can decrease vulnerability of the poor, especially poor women. More information on Sida funded South Asia related research projects in 2005.
In November 2005 Dr. Swain and Dr. Per Hilding, Department of Economic History, Stockholm University, received SEK 2.4 Million as a three-years grant (2006-08) from Sida/SAREC for a joint project entitled ”Helping or Hurting? – Policies for Combating Child Labour in Hazardous Occupations in India”. In order to ascertain the factors for the effectiveness of policy interventions to combat hazardous forms of child labour, they studied India’s Brassware industry of Muradabad, Diamond industry in Surat and Match and Fireworks industry in Sivakasi. Specifically, they investigated which policies or combination of policies will be effective in combating children’s work in hazardous occupations.