Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Paulo is a Lecturer in Economics at Monash University. His research interests are at the intersection of economics and sociology and also of economics and natural resource management - and in using insights from these different areas into understanding why poverty is persistent.
More than 70% of the differences in income or life expectancy across the world are due to circumstances beyond one's control: the place where we are born or our parent's wealth. I want to understand why these differences still persist and what can be done to change it.
As most economists, I care about how markets work. I'm particularly interested in understanding how markets are formed, how agents overcome problems of trust and asymmetric information. In my work I have looked at how networks are formed as one way of incorporating the idea of social embeddedness of economic relations, initially developed by sociologists and anthropologists, and how social context shapes transaction costs and allows the economy to function and how does it shape the depth and inclusiveness of markets. One small step from this work, I'm naturally interested in the importance of identity (and discrimination) as an additional explanation for why some people remain poor.
Natural resources and the territory are the other side of my interests: land use changes and deforestation, water management, technology adoption are all important determinants of the asset base that determines how people participate in the economy and in society of developing countries. They are also important areas of policy intervention, and one where the ability to talk with non-social scientists seems most needed.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Exploring Formal and Informal Coping Mechanisms: A Scoping Study on Strategies for Mitigating Shocks in Farming Households
1/06/23 → 30/04/24
Project: Research
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SIMLESA Impact Assessment Scoping Study
Santos, P. & Munthali, T.
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
27/03/23 → 15/03/24
Project: Research
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Predicting the effect of climate change on vulnerability to food insecurity in rural Mozambique
Santos, P., McLeod, R., Daniel, E., Cruz, A., Manussa, S., Bata, B. & Wilson, D.
London School of Economics and Political Science
15/02/23 → 15/03/24
Project: Research
Research output
- 14 Article
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Landscape heterogeneity, basis risk and the feasibility of index insurance: an analysis of rice in upland regions of Southeast Asia
Rigo, R., Santos, P. & Frontuto, V., Apr 2022, In: Food Policy. 108, 11 p., 102237.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
2 Citations (Scopus) -
Using contests to promote coordinated control of invasive species: an experimental evaluation
Meyer, S., Santos, P. & Kousonsavath, C., May 2022, In: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 113, 13 p., 102630.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Economic games can be used to promote cooperation in the field
Meyer, S., Santos, P. & Yang, F., 23 Nov 2021, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 118, 47, 6 p., e2026046118.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
6 Citations (Scopus) -
Sanitation, financial incentives and health spillovers: a cluster randomised trial
Cameron, L., Santos, P., Thomas, M. & Albert, J., May 2021, In: Journal of Health Economics. 77, 13 p., 102456.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
16 Citations (Scopus) -
Correcting for bias using multidimensional measures of Socially Desirable Response
Meyer, S. & Santos, P., Nov 2020, In: Economics Letters. 196, 3 p., 109574.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
2 Citations (Scopus)