Marcel Fafchamps (born in 1955) is a Belgian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and senior fellow at the

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

(

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

). He belongs to the leading economists in the field of

rural development Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life, quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural povert ...

Biography

A native of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, Marcel Fafchamps earned undergraduate degrees in law and economics from the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1978 and 1980, respectively. After his studies and military service, between 1981 and 1985, he worked for the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

on rural development, being based in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

. Pursuing an interest in research, Fafchamps then earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

with an award-earning thesis in 1989, including a stay at

ICRISAT The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is an international organisation which conducts agricultural research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, with several ...

in India. Thereafter, Fafchamps took up a position as assistant professor at

, first as part of the Food Research Institute and then - from 1996 on - within its Department of Economics. In 1999, Fafchamps then moved to

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

as professor of economics, where he held the deputy and co-directorship of Oxford's Centre for the Study of African Economies. Finally, since 2013, he has been back at

, where he works as senior fellow of the

. Beyond his academic positions, Fafchamps is affiliated with J-PAL, IZA, CEPR, CEGA and the

Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) is a professional association founded in 2002 to encourage research and scholarship in development economics. The association organizes conferences and seminars, disseminates a wo ...

(BREAD). In terms of professional service, Fafchamps serves as editor-in-chief of ''

Economic Development and Cultural Change ''Economic Development and Cultural Change (EDCC)'' is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes studies that use modern theoretical and empirical approaches to examine both the determinants and the effects of various dimensions of economic developme ...

'' and had editorial duties at the ''

Journal of African Economies The ''Journal of African Economies'' is published five times a year by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford. The journal publishes economic analyses, focused entirely on Africa. ...

'', ''

Economic Journal ''The Economic Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics published on behalf of the Royal Economic Society by Oxford University Press. The journal was established in 1891 and publishes papers from all areas of economics.The edito ...

'', ''

Journal of Development Economics The ''Journal of Development Economics'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1974 and is considered the top field journal in development economics. Its editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC ...

'', ''

American Journal of Agricultural Economics The ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of agricultural, natural resource, and environmental economics, as well as rural and community development. Published five times per year, it is one of two jou ...

'' and the '' Revue d'Economie du Développement''.

Research

Marcel Fafchamps' research focuses on entrepreneurship, factor markets and the efficiency of social networks as well as political economies in Africa and South Asia. In terms of research output, he belongs to the top 1% of economists registered on

IDEAS/RePEc Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...

. In his research, Fafchamps has frequently co-authored with Simon Quinn (

) and Bart Minten ( IFPRI).Google Scholar page of Marcel Fafchamps
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References

Bibliography

* Fafchamps, M. (2003). ''Rural Poverty, Risk and Development''. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. * Fafchamps, M. (2004). ''Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

External links

Homepage of Marcel Fafchamps on the website of Stanford University

Google Scholar page of Marcel Fafchamps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fafchamps, Marcel Belgian economists Agricultural economists Stanford University faculty 1955 births Living people Université catholique de Louvain alumni