Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Business Studies, Communities, Classes, Races, Education, Globalization & Development, Social Sciences

Regions:

Africa, Asia

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Howard has an academic background in social anthropology and development economics. His research interests include financial services for poverty reduction, informal finance, social stratification and development, migration and remittances, low-cost private schools in developing countries, and the role of micro-level research for programme planning and evaluation. His main geographical area of work is India, where his research focusses on moneylender finance, financial inclusion and exclusion, the impact of caste and tribe on livelihood diversification and migration, and the expansion of private school education in the country. He has been the principal investigator of three UK government-funded research projects examining access to financial services in Africa and India. In 2006 he was awarded the Aneurin Bevan Memorial Fellowship by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations to support his work in rural finance.

Project summary relevant to Fellowship:

Research Funding secured from the British Academy to update and expand a longitudinal study on livelihood diversification and migration in an Indian village.

Research conducted for a GIZ study of domestic migration and remittances in India.

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
31-Mar-2025	Lender Classifications and Contracts: Categorization in the All-India Surveys (1951–2012) and Evidence From the Account Books of a Moneylender in Rajasthan (1982–2015) Chapters In Beyond Banks, edited by C. van Bochove and J. Levy. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham (2025), pp. 241–272.
03-Feb-2021	Good businesses and good archives Perspectives from the records of a moneylender in rural India Chapters In Social Aims of Finance. Rediscovering varieties of credit in financial archives. Editors: Anna Cantaluppi, Chloe Colchester, Lilia Costabile, Carmen Hoffmann, Catherine Schenk and Matthias Weber. Publishers: The European Association for Banking and Financial History (eabh), Fondazione 1563 per l'Arte e la Cultura della Compagnia di San Paolo, pp 277-293.
23-Feb-2018	Social hierarchy and enrolment in government and private schools in rural India: longitudinal evidence from a Rajasthan village Journal articles Oxford Review of Education 44.3: 353-369
01-May-2016	A Child of the City: a Longitudinal Study of Stratification and Migration in a Rajasthan Village Articles International Review of Social Research, 6(3), pp. 107-117.
01-Jun-2014	Domestic Migration and Remittances in India: Rajasthani Tribal Migrants working in Gujarat Journal articles  Jones, J.H.M.; Williams, M. and M.P. Joshi (2014) 'Domestic Migration and Remittances in India: Rajasthani Tribal Migrants working in Gujarat', Journal of Enterprise Development and Microfinance, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 150-162.
01-Jan-2011	Gujarat-Rajasthan Migration and Remittance Corridor Study Contribution: Lead Author Publishers: GIZ, The German Agency for International Cooperation Notes: Report submitted to GIZ
01-Jan-2011	Remittance Needs and Opportunities in India Contribution: Co-Author Publishers: GIZ, The German Agency for International Cooperation Notes: Report submitted to GIZ and launched by the Union Minister of Finance, New Delhi, 02 August 2011

Relevant Events

Related events:

Date	Details
01-Aug-2015	What is the value of micro-level research in development? Examples from migration, informal finance and private low-cost schools in rural India BOND (the UK membership body for organisations working in international development), London, August, 2015.
02-Jul-2014	Conference presentation  Paper presented on 'Social Stratification and Changing Educational Opportunities in a Rajasthan Village' at the Conference 'How do education systems shape educational inequalities', University of Luxembourg.
21-May-2014	Microfiance Meeting  Paper presented on 'The Resiliance of Moneylender Finance in Rural India: Implications for Financial Inclusion and Microfinance' at a meeting jointly hosted by The Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Microfinance Club UK. Respondent: Usha Thorat, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
05-Mar-2014	Seminar presentation  Seminar presentation on Remittances and Financial Inclusion given at the University of Reading
20-Feb-2014	Seminar presentation  ICwS Seminar on 'The Opprobrium Provoked by Moneylending: Differing Perspectives from Rural India'
05-Feb-2014	Seminar presentation  Seminar presentation on Informal Finance given at the University of Reading
18-Jul-2013	Conference presentation  Paper presented on 'A longitudinal Study of Stratification and Mobility in a Rajasthan Village'  at the Conference on 'New Horizons in Research on Stratification, Mobility and Inequality' at the University of Queensland, Australia
15-Nov-2012	Seminar presentation  Seminar presentation on Rural Finance and Microfinance given at The University of Reading
03-Feb-2011	Seminar presentation  Seminiar Presentation on Rural Finance and Microfinance given at the University of Reading
17-Jan-2011	Microfinance Seminar A Seminar on the crisis of Microfinance in India jointed hosted by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Microfinance Club UK
07-Jan-2011	Conference presentation Paper presented on 'Domestic Migration and Remittances in India' at the Migration Conference, University College London
01-Jan-2011	Seminar presentation ICwS Seminar on Rajasthani Tribal Migrants and Remittances in Gujarat
29-Aug-2010	Seminar/workshop presentation Presentation of research findings on the Gujarat-Rajasthan Migration and Remittances Study to a Workshop in New Delhi organised by NABARD and GIZ

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