About me

My research is primarily focussed on mechanism design in the context of the environment. More recent work has been on understanding additionality, with a focus on South American forest dynamics. I use a variety of methods; developing simple models to capture the essence of the problem, and then typically combining these with data, either from the lab or the real world (be that RCTs or quasi-experimental evidence).

I came to economics from the natural sciences. Motivated by a passion for the natural world, I first pursued an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford. Hence my first publications are very much biology focussed. While I found my degree fascinating, it was apparent that issues of overexploitation were problems which science could largely not address; rather, solutions would be found through a better understanding of human behaviour and incentives.

During my PhD (University of Exeter) my research moved into understanding how institutions can be developed to better facilitate efficient use of the natural environment. My work focussed on developing incentive schemes for the regulation of pollution and the design of markets for trade of environmental services. My market design work continued throuugh my postdoc to now, alongside expanding my research agenda to consider the drivers of natutal resource management policy in the context of tropical forests.

I very much see this research agenda as being motivated by an aim to improve real-world outcomes, and as can be seen in the Policy and Impact page, relish the work I do with external stakeholders such as governmental departments and water companies.