Ranjini Thaver
Associate Professor and Chair of Economics
Ranjini Thaver, born in South Africa, completed her bachelor's degree, with honors, in Economics at the University of Cape Town, and her master's and doctoral degrees in Economics at the University of Notre Dame. She has taught at Stetson since 1992. She developed the first university-based microcredit program in the world, located in a poverty-stricken area in DeLand, and in Manio Village, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. She has partnered with local and national organizations to deliver economically empowering programs to the poor, such as personal finance education workshops, and volunteer income tax preparation (VITA). She has taught courses in Economics, Africana Studies, Gender Studies, and the Honors Program, and received Stetson University’s McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has presented her research at international, national, and local conferences, and at universities such as Cornell, Notre Dame and Mary Washington College.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
- M.A., Economics, University of Notre Dame
- B.A., Honors Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- B.A., Economics and Psychology, University of Durban Westville, South Africa
Research
- Poverty and microcredit, humane economics, and international trade.
Courses
- Economics of Poverty and Microcredit
- Local Economic Development
- Humane Economics, Freedom, and Justice
- Studies in Gender, Race, Class and Sexuality
- Social, Emotional, Economic, and Spiritual Intelligence
- Freakonomics, Corponomics, and Compassionomics
- Sub-Sahara African Economic History of Colonialism And Its Aftermath
- Econometrics
- Principles of Macroeconomics
- Principles of Microeconomics
- Intermediate Microeconomics
- Senior Project
Publications
- “An Econometric Analysis of Jamaica’s Import Demand Function with the US and UK,” International Journal of Business and Finance Research, 6(1), 2012 (with Stetson University Economics Senior Students, Kira Hibbert and Mark Hutchinson).
- “An Estimation of the Impact of GEAR and NEPAD on South Africa's Disaggregated Import Demand Function with Nigeria,” International Journal of Business and Finance Research, 6(2), 2012 (With Ekanayake, E.M., and Plante, Daniel).
- “The Impact of the Dollar-Rand Volatility and the U.S. Exports to South Africa,” International Journal of Business and Finance Research, 5(3), 73-85, 2011. (With E. M. Ekanayake, Bethune Cookman University)
- “Education in Praxis: The Case Of Stetson University’s Microcredit Initiatives.” Journal Of College And Character, Vol.2, 2005.
Faculty Expert
Poverty
Microfinance
Microcredit
Local economic
development
International trade
and finance
Entrepreneurship
Personal finance and money smart
Small business
development and planning
Service learning
Community based
research
Phone
386-822-7573
