Dr Elizabeth Robinson, is appointed associate professor in environmental economics at the Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. Robinson is an economist specializing in agriculture, natural resources, and the environment, with over 15 years experience undertaking applied research in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. She is also an EfD research associate.
“I am absolutely delighted to be joining such a strong group of environmental and resource economists. For the past four years, while living in Tanzania and Ghana, I have been working with individuals from the Environmental Economics Unit at the University of Gothenburg, through the Environment for Development initiative, and I am very excited now to be formally joining the team. I am looking forward to future collaborations with my new colleagues and to getting to know and working with the students in the department”, says Robinson.
Gunnar Köhlin, EfD Director, says:
”Elizabeth Robinson has made great contributions to the establishment of the EfD center in Tanzania and to EfD’s forest research theme. We are now looking forward to an even closer collaboration with her as she becomes associated with the Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg.”
Elizabeth Robinson, now based in Ghana where she is working with IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute). She is also a research associate with the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford in the UK.
From 2004 she was resident in Tanzania, and from 2007 was a fellow at the Environment for Development Tanzania initiative, and a lecturer on the AERC collaborative PhD programme in the Economics Department at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Elizabeth Robinson’s research focuses on the intersection of people and the natural environment, in particular how policies and institutions can be designed to protect both resource-dependent livelihoods and the natural resource base.
Methodologically, Robinson focuses on explicitly spatial and temporal models of resource extraction, on spatial optimal enforcement models, and combining anthropological and economic data collection approaches.
Her current research includes: identifying the determinants of successful participatory forest management in Tanzania; designing optimal incentives and enforcement mechanisms for managing wildlife and forests; enforcement and corruption; and the impact on livelihoods and other forested areas of excluding people from specific areas of forest.