A presentation given by professor Martine Visser, Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit and Research Chair, African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI).
Martine Visser is a Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town. She holds a PhD from Gothenburg University in Sweden. She is associated with various research units within the School of Economics, including the Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit (EPRU), the Research Unit of Behavioral and Neuro-economics Research (RUBEN) and the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU).
Martine specializes in behavioral economic applications to climate change, natural resource use, health and poverty alleviation. She is interested in how social norms and preferences such as trust, cooperation and risk aversion impact on decision making. Martine mainly uses experimental methods (in the lab and in the field) combined with survey analysis and randomized control trials. Recent experimental and empirical studies have focused on cooperation and risk related to climate change, risky sexual behavior and social norms. She is also involved in several projects investigating the role of local governance and social institutions in the provision of basic services to the poor and its effects on subjective wellbeing.