Inclusion in Economics: Interview with Sole Martinez Peria

• Pages: 1-3

SOPHIA C: Inclusion is a truly multidimensional topic.

Understanding inclusion require s thinking that crosses

the traditional b oundary between dierent fiel ds.

This kind of thinking is no t uncommon in your research,

Sole: you have written ex tensively at the intersec tion of

finance and development , two views that have developed

mostly indepen dently. What interests you in making the

connection between these two?

SOLE M: When I sta rted my professional career at th e

World Bank, I really was not thi nking about financial

inclusion. However, I was in a group where many

colleagues were working on financial development.

They studied how t he size of the financial sector mat tered

for growth. With colleagues Asli Demirgüç-Kunt and

Thorsten Bec k, we started wondering wh ether what

Sole Martinez Peria is Assistant

Director of the IMF Research

Department. A former Research

Manager at the World Bank, Sole

played an active role in collecting

cross-country data and kick-starting

the Bank’s research on financial

inclusion. In this interview, she talks

with Sophia Chen about inclusion—

what it means for economic research

and for the economics profession.

IMF RESEARCH perspectives | IMF.org/researchbulletin 01