Esther is pursuing a PhD in Social Economics at the University of Valencia (Spain) under the supervision of Francisco Soler and with the co-supervision from Frank Schulz-Nieswandt (University of Köln, Germany) and Katrin Kaeufer (MIT, USA). Intrigued by the questions of how collective organizations are best governed and how banking practices can contribute to a more sustainable development, she has been led to study Nordic local government funding agencies.
Her research interests encompass organizational studies on governance in cooperatives and common pool resources as well as sustainability in finance & banking.
In her free-time, she helps to build the community of new economic thinkers and practitioners by coordinating YSI’s Cooperatives & Cooperation Working Group and she experiments with what it means to bring joy, compassion and love to her life and to other people’s lives.
Esther M. Schmitt
