Jordan van Rijn

I am an Associate Teaching Professor in the department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In this role I serve as the Associate Director for the AAE professional master's (MSPO) and visiting international students (VISP) programs, and teach undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in applied economics, agricultural finance, data analysis, business economics, and professional development. I am also a Research Fellow at the UW-Madison Center for Financial Security, a member of NCBA's Council of Cooperative Economists, a faculty affiliate at the UW Center for Cooperatives, and serve on the board of Working Capital for Community Needs. I received my PhD in 2018 from the department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW-Madison and also hold degrees from UC-San Diego's School of Global Policy & Strategy and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. 

My research fields include development economics, agricultural economics and financial economics, with applications to charitable giving, household finance and financial institutions. I am particularly interested in comparing the structures, incentives and related outcomes of nonprofit cooperative financial institutions (e.g., credit unions) and for-profit financial institutions (e.g., commercial banks). Recent research projects include comparing subprime mortgage lending and loan performance at credit unions and commercial banks during the 2007-2009 financial crisis; studying how competition between banks and credit unions shapes the equilibrium distribution of credit risk in auto loan markets; comparing auto loan rates paid by households that use credit unions versus banks; and investigating how banks and credit unions differ in their executive compensation structures and related incentives. Along with Dawit Zenebe and Andres Shahidinejad, I also help organize the annual Credit Union Research Workshop.

My research has been published in various academic journals including the Journal of Consumer Affairs, The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, the Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics and Agricultural and Environmental Letters. My research and commentary has also been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, Forbes, U.S. News, Reuters, Finance Yahoo, CNBC, American Banker and others. For more information, here are links to my Google Scholar, ResearchGate and SSRN pages.

Prior to my current position, I worked as a Senior Economist at the Credit Union National Association for four years where I continue to work as a consultant. Before that I worked as a Senior Loan Officer for ACCION in New Mexico, a non-profit microfinance organization, and as a Project Associate for ideas42 in Colombia, where I utilized insights from behavioral economics to improve microcredit services and supply chain financing for dairy farmers. I have also interned and worked for FINCA International, Mama Hope, Timor Aid and the International Rescue Committee, with international experience in Colombia, Nicaragua, Kenya, East Timor, China and Australia. My CV is available here.