Professor Martine Visser

Martine Visser is the centre director of EPRU. She is a Professor in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Martine is currently a Research Chair with the African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI). She is also associated with various research units within the School of Economics, including the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), the Research Unit of Behavioural and Neuro-economics Research (RUBEN) and the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU). In 2022 Martine was awarded the Governance and Economics of Ecological Infrastructure Research Chair presented by The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) and co-funded by DSI/NRF-DEA/WRC Water RDI Roadmap.

Martine specialises in behavioural 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 randomised 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.