Irene Furlani
Irene Furlani is a PhD student at the Chair of Development Economics and part of the DFG Research Training Group "Digital Platform Ecosystems" (DPE). She holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Mannheim and a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics with an economics curriculum from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. During her studies, she was a research assistant for the Chair of Econometrics at the University of Mannheim and at the Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) in Mannheim. Before starting her PhD studies, she obtained a full-time position as (Junior) Research Manager at C4ED. There, she gained practical field experience in impact evaluation, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Currently, she is researching the impact of digital technologies and platforms on information diffusion (India, Indonesia) and data quality (Ghana). In particular, she focuses on:
- How does agricultural training offered on a digital platform affect the performance of extension workers and millennial farmers in Indonesia, testing whether digital capacity-building can foster the adoption of sustainable practices while reaching a broader pool of farmers
- How mobile broadband connectivity in India influences reproductive and labor outcomes, focusing on the role of access to information in shaping fertility decisions and economic participation
- How privacy-enhancing digital tools can improve data reliability when measuring sensitive social phenomena, using the context of menstruation stigma among adolescent girls in Ghana
Conferences and Workshops
- Africa Evidence Summit 2026, July 2026
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - 1st European Development Economics Group (EDEG) Conference, June 2026
Kiel, Germany - SITES-AICC Conference 2026: Development and Climate Mitigation/Adaptation, May 2026
Frascati (Rome), Italy - 13th Micro Evidence in Innovation and Development (MEIDE), December 2025
Kerala, India - 14th Workshop in Development Economics for Young Economists (SITES), June 2025
Prato, Italy
Awards
- SurveyCTO Research Grant 2025 – Honorable Mention
Project: Safe Response: Impact of a Privacy-Enhancing Plug-in on Menstruation Stigma Response Patterns in Ghana
Award: One-year free subscription to SurveyCTO (approx. value: USD 7,500)
Curriculum Vitae
Summer term 2026: -
Former terms:
Growth and Development, Tutorial (MA)
Growth, Inequality and Poverty, Tutorial (MA)
Seminar in Public Economics (MA)
I agree that a connection to the Vimeo server will be established when the video is played and that personal data (e.g. your IP address) will be transmitted.
I agree that a connection to the YouTube server will be established when the video is played and that personal data (e.g. your IP address) will be transmitted.
Show video
