Olga Biosca is Professor of Economics. She leads the Economics of Health and Wellbeing Research Group in the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health and is a member of the Centre’s Management Group.
Professor Biosca’s research focuses primarily on financial inclusion, microfinance, health and wellbeing. She is particularly interested in how income is linked to health and wellbeing, and how financial exclusion and financial management strategies mediate this association at a microeconomic level in advanced and developing contexts. She is also involved in projects exploring microfinance for climate adaptation. Olga is also experienced in transnational comparative research dealing with exclusion and vulnerable groups. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sheffield, and a MSc in Development Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.
Her research has been funded by organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government’s Health Directorates, the EU Commission Horizon 2020 programme, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, among others.
She has published in journals including Social Science and Medicine, Health Policy and Planning, and the Journal of Development Studies. She is a co-founder and member of the Iberoamerican Network of Development Studies. She is also a an associate member at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance and the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston University.
Olga is interested and currently supervises PhD students in the broad areas of:
- Contribution of microfinance, social enterprise and other civil society initiatives to health and well-being.
- The economics of social business and microfinance.
- Financial vulnerability and exclusion.