Laura Doering
PhD Candidate, Sociology and Organizations & Markets
MA, Sociology, University of Chicago
MA, International Social Development, University of New South Wales
BA, Psychology, Dartmouth College
Email: ldoering@uchicago.edu
Homepage: http://sociology.uchicago.edu/people/grad_students/LauraDoering.shtml
Curriculum Vita: CV
Laura Doering is pursuing a joint PhD in the Department of Sociology and Booth School of Business. Theoretically, her work contributes to research on entrepreneurial founding, relational lending, and the expanding influence of the formal financial sector. Laura's research is motivated by the question, "How do social factors, like income inequality and organizational ties, shape economic growth in emerging markets?" She explores this question through two related segments of emerging economies: microenterprise and microfinance. Small-scale businesses and the institutions that lend to them offer a fascinating glimpse into how social factors influence economic growth and market creation. Laura draws on a variety of methods and data sources to explore these issues. Her research utilizes a proprietary database from a financial institution in Central America, ethnographic observations at the same institution, and nearly 100 interviews with small-scale entrepreneurs.
Master's Title
Microcredit: History, Goals, and Theoretical Approaches for Latin America
Research Interests
Economic Sociology/Globalization, Social Organization/Formal/Complex, Development/Modernization
Selected Publications
2008. The Bahá'ís in Iran: A persecuted minority. The Australian Human Rights Defender. 17(1), pp. 23-25 (with Stephen Evans).
Necessity-Driven Internal Migration and the Emergence of Novel Businesses Among the Entrepreneurial Poor (under review)
