On Friday 20 November, Professor Matthias Rieger will deliver his inaugural lecture. For this occasion, we are organising a symposium on Global Health and Development Economics.
- Professor
- Date
- Friday 20 Nov 2026, 09:30 - 18:30
- Type
- Inaugural lecture
- Spoken Language
- English
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
- Location
Symposium: Bayle Building, 7th floor. Inaugural Lecture: Erasmus Building, Aula
- Ticket information
Registration is now open and can be completed below on the webpage.
The Global Health and Development Economics Symposium, on the occasion of Professor Matthias Rieger's inaugural lecture, assembles development economists working on global health from the Netherlands and beyond. Research presentations range from social protection and supporting vulnerable populations to the social origins of health inequality and poor mental health.
Symposium Programme
- 9:30 Walk-in with coffee
- 10:00 Opening by Matthias Rieger (ESHPM) and Symposium Chair Igna Bonfrer (ESHPM)
- 10:10 Harsha Thirumurthy (Professor, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania) | "Crowding Out Temptation: Experimental Evidence on Savings and Health Behaviors in Kenya'.
- 10:45 Wendy Janssens (Professor of Development Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) | 'Experience, Salience, and Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance: Experimental Evidence from Kenya' (with Ana Diaz Mendez, Eleonora Nillesen and Menno Pradhan).
- 11:20 Coffee & fruit break
- 11:35 Amma Panin (Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Louvain) | 'Using Religious Participation to Insure Mental Health in Ghana'.
- 12:10 Arjun Bedi (Professor of Development Economics, International Institute of Social Studies) |
'Altering Men's Norms, Attitudes and Behaviour Towards Intimate Partner Violence: Experimental Evidence from Kerala, India' (with K. Baby Sujatha, Bruno Martorano and Eleonora Nillesen). - 12:45 Wrap-up by Igna Bonfrer and Matthias Rieger
- 13:00 Lunch
After lunch there is an opportunity to meet speakers 1:1 for coffee. Please send an email to rieger@eshpm.eur.nl if you are interested to schedule a meeting slot.
Inaugural lecture
Following the symposium, prof. Rieger will deliver his inaugural lecture, titled: What Tips the Scale? Global Health Behaviors and Randomized Trials.
The inaugural lecture draws on Matthias Rieger's research using RCTs on how individuals in low-resource settings make health decisions under constraints and how interventions can support health behaviors and outcomes of vulnerable populations. He will also discuss the limitations of field experimental approaches and the challenge of scaling interventions. The ceremony will start promptly at 16:00 CET in the Aula of the university (Erasmus building). There is an option to watch the lecture via livestream. The reception will take place in the same building afterwards.
