Rate My Professor Simona Helmsmüller

Prof. Dr. Simona Helmsmüller is Professor of Economics of Social Protection in the Department of Social Policy and Social Security at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, where she contributes to Business & Economics through her expertise in development economics and social protection systems. She earned a Diplom in Mathematics with a focus on Insurance Mathematics from the University of the Saarland in 2008, a B.A. in Business Administration from FernUniversität Hagen in 2012, and a Doctor of Economics from the University of Mannheim in 2020. Her studies spanned Mathematics, Chemistry, Business Administration, and Economics at institutions including Saarbrücken, Montréal, Hagen, and Mannheim. Helmsmüller's professional career began as Project Manager and Consultant at AFC International GmbH from 2010 to 2016, managing microfinance projects for clients such as GIZ, KfW, EU, and the World Bank. She served as Research Assistant at the Chair of Econometrics at the University of Mannheim from 2017 to 2019, Post-doctoral Researcher at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg from 2019 to 2022, and Project Director at AFC International from 2019 to 2020. At H-BRS since 2019 as Lecturer, she became Professor in September 2022, Program Director of the MSc Social Protection in April 2023, Chair Professor in Sustainable Social Policy in October 2023, and Co-Director of the International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE) in September 2024.

Helmsmüller's research focuses on development economics and the economics of social protection, particularly health insurance, cash transfers, and microfinance in the Global South, utilizing applied microeconometrics and impact evaluations like randomized controlled trials. Her teaching covers Economics of Social Protection, Quantitative Methods in Empirical Social Research, Evaluation, Development Economics, and Education Economics. Key publications include 'The Critical Role of Implementing Partners: Evidence From Training Micro and Small Enterprises Across 12 Financial Service Providers' with Alexandra Avdeenko and Markus Frölich in The Journal of Development Studies (2024); 'Does free hospitalization insurance change health care consumption of the poor? Short-term evidence from Pakistan' with Andreas Landmann in The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review (2022); 'Social protection reform in Georgia: principles and perspectives from Germany' with Remi Maier-Rigaud (2022); and 'Changing Business Practices of Micro and Small Enterprises: Evidence from an RCT with 12 Financial Service Providers' with Avdeenko and Frölich (2021).