Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt, who served as the Chief Economist of the Europe and Central Asia region at the World Bank and who currently works as a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development, has been included in the Distinguished Research Fellowship program of our university.
Making a statement on the subject, our President Yusuf Leblebici said, “We are delighted to add one more distinguished scientist, who served as the Chief Economist of the Europe and Central Asia region at the World Bank, who has achieved international success, and who has a worldwide reputation for her studies, into the Distinguished Research Fellowship program that we started in the 2019-2020 Academic year.”
Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt will contribute to our University with her studies in finance and private sector development.
Other members of our Distinguished Research Fellows program include Mete Atatüre, Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and Director of Studies and Tutor at St. John’s College, Özlem Ayduk, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Director of the Relationships and Social Cognition Lab., and Fellow of the Society of Personality & Social Psychology, Holger Alexander Klein, Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor of Medieval Art at the University of Cambridge, and Director of the Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University, Serdar Taşran, Principal Engineer at Amazon Web Services, and Mehmet Toner, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Who is Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt?
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is a former Chief Economist of the Europe and Central Asia region at the World Bank, a position she held until August 2022, and currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. Over her 30-year career in the World Bank, she also served as the Director of Research, Director of Development Policy, and the Chief Economist of the Finance and Private Sector Development Network, conducting research and advising on financial and private sector development issues.
The author of over 100 publications, she has published widely in academic journals and is among the most-cited researchers in the world. Her research has focused on the links between financial development, firm performance, and economic development. Banking and financial crises, financial regulation, access to financial services and inclusion, as well as SME finance and entrepreneurship are among her areas of research. She has also created the Global Financial Development Report series and Global Findex financial inclusion database.
She was the President of the International Atlantic Economic Society (2013-14) and Director of the Western Economic Association (2015-18) and serves on the editorial boards of professional journals. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Ohio State University.