Valentina Hartarska

Dr. Hartarska is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology and in the Department of Finance at Auburn University. Dr. Hartarska specializes in banking, financial institution, financial markets, rural finance and microfinance. Most recently she served as the lead editor of Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion, and Development (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023) with Bob Cull, the World Bank. Her research includes cross-country studies as well as in-depth studies of financial markets of individual countries. She has published in leading finance and economics journals such as Journal of Money Credit and Banking, Journal of Banking and Finance,World Development, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, as well as Finance Research Letters, Small Business Economics, Applied Economics, International Review of Economics and Finance among others and she serves on several editorial boards. Her work has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Institute of Health, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and she was appointed on review panels by the USDA and US Civilian Research and Development Foundation. Dr Hartarska served as a consultant for the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, and USAID. Dr. Hartarska holds a PhD at the Ohio State University, completed higher education degrees in six countries and speaks five languages.