Predoctoral Researcher on Financial Inclusion
IQS Barcelona invites applications for a Predoctoral Researcher Funding Contract to work on the project “Financial inclusion tools to address the challenges related to accessing financial services” . The position offers a three-year scholarship and full-time employment starting in March 2026, covering doctoral tuition and providing a full employment contract within the Business and Territorial Competitiveness, Innovation and Sustainability (CETIS) program at the IQS School of Management, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain.
Financial Inclusion (FI) is recognized as a crucial instrument for economic advancement. This project explores barriers to FI and tools to improve access to financial services. Key obstacles include high service costs, limited branch access, misaligned risk assessments, poor financial education, and weak regulations. To address these, the project aims to examine innovative solutions such as microfinance, blockchain, and the formal use of remittances. By focusing on both supply and demand challenges,



the project seeks to identify effective Financial Inclusion Tools (FITs) that can combat poverty and marginalization, extending FI benefits to developing, transition, and developed economies.
In this PhD project we will investigate eight FITs: mobile money, non-bank financial distribution, behavioural credit risk, workers’ remittances, adapted financial regulation, financial education, microfinance business models, and blockchain technology. The research will pursue three core objectives: (i) construct and analyze novel indicators of financial inclusion across regions; (ii) assess the effectiveness of the FITs; and (iii) generate and propose new FITs to address access challenges. This highly data-driven, interdisciplinary effort combines finance and economic sciences, employing advanced econometric techniques, experimental research, and a novel panel dataset.
Key Responsibilities
The doctoral researc

📌 Predoctoral Researcher on Financial Inclusion (España)
🏢 IQS Barcelona
📍 España