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Esther A. Laryea (Ph.D)

Lecturer 
Business Administration
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Biography 

Dr Laryea is a lecturer in the Business Administration Department at Ashesi University. She teaches finance-related courses like Corporate Finance and International Finance. She is also the lead on the Business Administration Applied Project Capstone which focuses on providing students an opportunity to consult for real-life companies. She additionally leads the Ashesi Student Launchpad. 

Teaching Statement 

I love to teach. I have always known that I love teaching, but after I started teaching Sunday School, all my doubts about my passion were quelled. I immensely enjoyed what I did. At any level, my love for knowledge creation and sharing drives my teaching philosophy.  I believe that teaching is a three-point cycle which consists of research, knowledge dissemination and feedback. 

I can’t share what I don’t know and to know I must be willing to learn. I read widely all materials related to my teaching interests and beyond so I can provide holistic information when I teach. I am also deliberate about being abreast of finance-related happenings around the world. Reading local and international business and economic news and speaking to industry practitioners have also proven useful tools in this regard. My commitment to teaching is a lifelong commitment to learning. 

Over the years, I have come to learn that knowledge is co-created. I work in partnership with my students to co-create knowledge while leveraging experiential learning pedagogy. I do all I can to ensure that the knowledge co-creation process is engaging, fun, and exciting for my students and myself. Exciting teaching and learning for me include using videos, debates, drama, games, case studies, and the full range of technological devices and software at my disposal. I am at my best when my students are at ease and confident in class. Confident enough to ask questions, respectfully challenge and question my views and those of others while clearly articulating their own thoughts. In this way, I contribute my lot to developing critical thinkers capable of leading and transforming the world. 

I consider feedback to be the most critical leg of my teaching cycle. Feedback for me comes mainly in two forms: my evaluation of student performance and student evaluation of my performance. Student assignments, projects, exams, etc. allow me to assess how effectively I communicated concepts to students. It also allows me to evaluate how much I have contributed to building their critical reasoning and problem-solving skills. If they do this well then I am glad to know that they understood the basic concepts underlying what was taught and will be capable of applying it outside the classroom. If not, then I can identify the portions of the concept they are seemingly struggling with and review how effectively I can present that portion. Student evaluation also allows me to have good feedback on my style of teaching. I love student evaluation because I love to improve upon myself and I might not be in the position to objectively assess myself. Evaluation Presents me with useful information on how I can become a better teacher. I seek to be the best at whatever I do and for that reason find evaluation the most critical leg of my teaching philosophy cycle. 

Research Statement 

I am interested in understanding how soft issues such as societal structures, human behaviour, emotions and culture intersect with financial and economic constructs. This interest springs from my belief that economic and financial models fail to reflect reality when they ignore such fundamental issues. I explored the effects of social inclusion on economic outcomes in Africa for my PhD. The findings from my study has important implications for policy discussions on integrating and including the disabled, refugees, and immigrants into our societies. Previously, my Mphil thesis explored national culture and corporate governance roles in explaining African firms’ debt maturity choices.  I hope to explore other social concepts (social capital, trust) and their inter-relationship with financial and economic outcomes in future. I have also worked with my students in exploring how behavioural and cultural issues such as herding, anchoring, language and trust influence financial behaviour and outcomes. 

Besides researching behavioural and social finance/economics, I also am interested in researching education. My education research spans a range of interests housed under the scholarship of teaching and learning. I also believe that I can contribute to quality education by developing context-relevant case studies for teaching. The scarcity of business teaching cases that reflect African business contexts and nuances drives my interest in case writing.  

Education and Qualifications 

  • PhD. Finance, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana 
  • M.Phil. Finance, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana 


Professional Affiliation 

  • Member, Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana 


Awards, Honours and Grants 

  • Joint recipient of the 2020 Ashesi Faculty Research Grant 


Publications 

Journal Article: 

  • Koomson, I., Kofinti, R. E., & Laryea, E. (2023). Financial inclusion and multidimensional child poverty. Review of Economics of the Household, 1-24.  

Peer-Reviewed Publications 

  • Laryea, E. A., &. Djan J. (2023) The Effects of Case-Based Learning on Students’ Learning Performance, Cogent Education (Currently under review) 
  • Owusu, S. P, &. Laryea, E. A. (2022). The impact of anchoring bias on investment decision-making: evidence from Ghana", Review of Behavioral Finance, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/RBF-09-2020-0223 
  • Torku, K., & Laryea, E. A. (2021). Corporate governance and bank failure: Ghana’s 2018 banking sector crisis. Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 1-21. 
  • Laryea, E. A., Avetsi, M and Duse, H. (2021) Exploring International Markets: Unique Quality Heads to Kenya. The Case For Women. https://doi.org/10.1108/CFW.2020.000022 
  • Laryea, E. A., Ntow-Gyamfi, M, and Alu, A. A(2016). Non-performing loans and Bank Profitability: Evidence from an Emerging Ghanaian Market. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 7(4), 462-481 


Conference Presentations 

  • Development Finance Conference (2017), Lord Charles Hotel, Cape Town- South Africa Conference Presentation: Trade Openness and Economic Growth in Emerging Countries 
  • Business and Development in Africa: Determining New Frontiers (2013), University of Ghana Business School, Legon Accra. Conference Presentation: National Culture, Corporate Governance and Corporate Debt Maturity Structure: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. 


Newspaper Publications