Annemie Maertens

Welcome to my homepage.

I am a  Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex.

I am a development and agricultural economist. I study poverty in rural communities in India and Sub Saharan Africa. I  teach micro-development economics at the Masters level and advise graduate students in development economics.  

I work on the role of social networks, social norms and identity in economic decision-making.  I am interested in how people learn about their environment and how this learning then impacts behaviour.  Most of my research entails working with farmers in India and Africa.  I have worked extensively on farmers' social learning process, and how they learn from experts and the media about new agricultural technologies and market opportunities. In more recent work, I consider land markets, and how migration and social norms influence and shape this market in India and Malawi. 

I am also interested in the economics of gender. I have looked extensively at the institution of marriage in India:  I studied the determinants and effects of early marriage, and the role of the extended family.  I worked on adult education for women, and studied impacts on the position and status of the women involved. At the core of some of this work is the relationship between parents and children. Some of my work focusses on this relationship and looks at how parents form beliefs about their children, and how these beliefs then impact their decisions.  

Most of my projects involve a field component. I collect household data, often combined with lab-in-the-field experiments or Randomised Controlled Trials.  I greatly enjoy fieldwork; it allows me to be creative and ask questions typically unasked in standard surveys, and the close interaction with households gives me a deeper understanding of the relevant issues, and also provides inspiration for future research.

For my information on my current and past research projects (including questionnaires and data) see my research page. 

Contact information:  Jubilee Building 260; University of Sussex; Falmer, Brighton;  BN1 9SL, UK  

Email: A.Maertens@sussex.ac.uk

Annemie Maertens - Homepage - Updated February 2024