The Centre for Finance and Development (CFD) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (, abbreviated IHEID), commonly referred to as Geneva Graduate Institute, is a graduate-level research university in Geneva, Switzerland dedicated to international relations, dev ...

which is housed at the Maison de la paix in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. The Centre is staffed by several prominent economists including director Nathan Sussman, deputy-director Ugo Panizza, Lore Vandewalle, Cédric Tille, and Charles Wyplosz.

Founding

The Centre for Finance and Development was founded in 2012 with a grant of the Pictet Group Foundation for Development. It was formally inaugurated by

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

professor

Ricardo Hausmann Ricardo Hausmann (born 1956) is the former Director of the Center for International Development currently leading the Center for International Development's Growth Lab and is a professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Harvard Ken ...

in September 2012. The Centre's first director was Jean-Louis Arcand. From 2016, Ugo Panizza was director of the CFD, after which Nathan Sussman took over his role in 2019.

Expertise

The Centre specifically focuses on research in the following fields: *

Financial inclusion Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services—which ...

and access to financial markets in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...

; *

Impact investing Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an a ...

and SDG investing; * Scaling up investment in

Small and Medium Enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organizat ...

in developing countries and SME finance; *

Fintech Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

and technological developments in developing countries; * Alternative sources of funding (

microfinance Microfinance consists of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses (SMEs) who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; saving ...

microinsurance Microinsurance is the protection of low-income people (defined as those living on more than approximately $1 but less than $4 per day) against specific perils in exchange for regular premium payment proportionate to the likelihood and cost of the r ...

); *

Sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

Activities

The Centre's faculty regularly publishes their research in academic journals, books and the Centre's own research paper series. The research output includes the influential Too Much Finance paper, the research for which was done at the Centre for Finance and Development. The Centre regularly hosts conferences and public lectures. In 2017, the CFD hosted the second edition of the DebtCon conference on

sovereign debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit occ ...

. In 2018, the Centre hosted a two-day conference on blended development finance together with the

Center for Global Development The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, directo ...

and the

CDC Group British International Investment plc, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Off ...

. In 2019, it hosted the annual lecture of the

United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) is part of the United Nations University (UNU). UNU-WIDER, the first research and training centre to be established by the UNU, is an international academ ...

with Santiago Levy and hosted the first annual conference of the Private Sector Development Research Network, a network involving the

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

, Internationanl Growth Centre and other institutions in the field. Since 2020, the Centre also hosts an online

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

series on

economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...

, the International Macro History Online Seminar.

External links

Centre for Finance and Development official website

References

{{authority control Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Maison de la Paix Economic research institutes Research institutes in Switzerland Schools in Geneva Organizations established in 2012 2012 establishments in Switzerland