Some media coverage of my work can be found here.

Here's a link to my Google Scholar page and one to my Scopus page, and here's my ORCID profile.

Click here for a complete list of downloadable working papers and (most ) published articles. If you cannot access something below, send me an email and I'll be happy to provide an electronic copy.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals (most are open access)

18. Brunnschweiler, Christa and Samuel Kwabena Obeng (2025). Rewarding allegiance? Political Alignment and Fiscal Outcomes in Local Government. Journal of African Economies. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejaf013 

17. Brunnschweiler, Christa, Nanang Kurdiawan, Päivi Lujala, Primi Putri, Sabrina Scherzer, and Indah Wardhani (2025). The right to benefit: Using videos to encourage citizen involvement in resource revenue management.  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 236: 107065.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107065 Replication files
The project was pre-registered on the EGAP OSF database and is part of a wider project on transparency, identity and governance of high-value natural resources (TIGRe) funded by the Research Council of Finland (formerly the Academy of Finland). Here are links to the treatment videos: shown in our survey experiment: Treatment 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzbzdkb0zgA; Treatment 2 Mismanagement & corruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYbNqo3ADA; Treatment 3 Role models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEnotdArhEY 

16. Brunnschweiler, Christa, Päivi Lujala, Primi Putri, Sabrina Scherzer, and Indah Wardhani (2025). When petroleum revenue transparency policy meets citizen engagement reality: Survey evidence from Indonesia, Ecological Economics 230: 108529 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108529 Replication files
This paper is part of a wider project on transparency, identity and governance of high-value natural resources (TIGRe) funded by the Research Council of Finland (formerly the Academy of Finland).

15. Clarke, Joanne, Nicholas P. Simpson, Anne Haour, Hana Morel, Johanna Forster, Ben Orlove, Cornelius Holtorf, Andy Hutcheson, Victoria Aryee Adinorkuor, Christa Brunnschweiler, Nick Brooks, Sarah Wade, Nii-Adziri Wellington, Kwasi Appeaning Addo (2025). Curating transformation can strengthen adaptation and minimise losses and damages, npj Climate Action 4 (4 ). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-025-00210-z 

14. Brunnschweiler, Christa, Ishmael Edjekumhene, Päivi Lujala and Sabrina Scherzer (2025). “You need to have this information!”: Using videos to increase demand for accountability on public revenue management, World Development 186: 106813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106813 Replication files
This is the third paper linked to a field experiment on transparency in resource revenue management in Ghana. It analyses results of a survey experiment included in the endline survey conducted in summer 2017, with further longer-term results from a follow-up phone survey in early 2020. 

13. Brunnschweiler, Christa, Deanna Karapetyan and Päivi Lujala (2024), Opportunities and risks of small-scale and artisanal gold mining for local communities: Survey evidence from Ghana, The Extractive Industries and Society  17: 101403.    doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2024.101403 Replication files

12. Brunnschweiler, Christa and Steven Poelhekke (2021), Pushing One's Luck: Petroleum ownership and discoveries, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 109: 102506. doi: 10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102506  Replication files

11. Brunnschweiler, Christa, Ishmael Edjekumhene, and Päivi Lujala (2021), Does information matter? Transparency and demand for accountability in Ghana's natural resource revenue management, Ecological Economics, 181. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106903                Replication files   
This is the second paper from a field experiment on transparency in resource revenue management in Ghana. It looks at another set of results from our baseline survey conducted in summer 2016.

10. Brunnschweiler, Christa N., Pietro Peretto, and Simone Valente (2021), Wealth Creation, Wealth Dilution and Population Dynamics, Journal of Monetary Economics 171: 441-459. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2020.02.002               Online Appendix      Data and codes

9. Lujala, Päivi, Christa Brunnschweiler, and Ishmael Edjekumhene (2020), Transparent for whom? Dissemination of information on Ghana’s petroleum and mining revenue management, Journal of Development Studies, 56 (12): 2135-2153. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2020.1746276.     Online Appendix         Replication data 
This is the first paper from a field experiment on transparency in resource revenue management in Ghana. It looks at results from our baseline survey conducted in summer 2016.

8. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Päivi Lujala (2019), Economic Backwardness and Social Tension, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 121(2), 482–516. doi: 10.1111/sjoe.12281           Online Appendix     Dataset in Stata14 format        Stata replication do file

7. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Päivi Lujala (2017), Income and armed civil conflict: An instrumental variables approach, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy 23 (4). doi: 10.1515/peps-2017-0024       Dataset in Stata14 format     Stata replication do file

6. Brunnschweiler, Christa N., Colin Jennings and Ian A. MacKenzie (2014), A study of expressive choice and strikes, European Journal of Political Economy 34: 111–125. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.01.004

5. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. (2010), Finance for Renewable Energy: An Empirical Analysis of Developing and Transition Economies, Environment and Development Economics 15 (3): 241-274. doi:10.1017/S1355770X1000001X      Dataset in Excel format

4. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Erwin H. Bulte (2009), Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Resource Abundance, Dependence and the Onset of Civil Wars, Oxford Economic Papers 61 (4): 651-674. doi:10.1093/oep/gpp024      Online Appendix        Dataset in Excel format

3. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Erwin H. Bulte (2008), The resource curse revisited and revised: A tale of paradoxes and red herrings, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 55 (3): 248-264 (among the journal's most downloaded and most cited articles published since 2008, winner of the Erik Kempe Award). doi: 10.1016/j.jeem.2007.08.004      Online Appendix       Dataset in Excel format

2. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Erwin H. Bulte (2008), Linking Natural Resources to Slow Growth and More Conflict, Science 320 (5876): pp. 616 - 617 (in the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric). Online Appendix

1.Brunnschweiler, Christa N. (2008), Cursing the blessings? Natural resource abundance, institutions, and economic growth, World Development 36 (3): 399-419. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.03.004

Book chapters 

2. Luisetti, Tiziana, McHarg, Ellen, Smith, Glen, Brunnschweiler, Christa, Parker, Ruth, Juntti, Meri and Benson, Lisa (2024). Blue Carbon: Challenges for Definition, Valuation and Governance. In: Baird, Daniel and Elliott, Michael (eds.) Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, 2nd Edition, vol. 7: 132-153. Oxford: Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90798-9.00059-7 

1.Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Tiziana Luisetti (2021), Can blue carbon initiatives help conserve mangroves in developing countries?, in: Dirk Rübbelke and Anil Markandya (eds.): Climate and Development, World Scientific Series on Environmental, Energy and Climate Economics (WSSEECE), World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811240553_0013 

Other publications

Contributor (with Päivi Lujala) to the Dictionary of Ecological Economics (ed. G. Dale), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (2023). Entries: Accountability, Transparency.

Edjekumhene, Ishmael, Maarten Voors, Päivi Lujala, Christa Brunnschweiler, Charles Kofi Owusu, Andy Nyamekye (2019), Impacts of key provisions in Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 3ie Impact Evaluation Report 94.
This is the full report on a field experiment on transparency in resource revenue management in Ghana conducted between 2016-2017. We have also written some policy briefs on this project:  Policy Brief #1: Transparent for whom? Dissemination of information on Ghana's petroleum and mining revenue management; Policy Brief #2: Transparency and accountability in Ghana's petroleum revenue management: Evidence from a field experiment; Policy Brief #3: Has Ghana's petroleum revenue management act (PRMA) been able to ensure transparent, efficient and accountable management of petrodollars? Evidence from a process evaluation of two provisions of PRMA . Here is a short description of the project that I wrote for UEA's research page. 

Brunnschweiler, Christa and Erwin Bulte (2012), The on-going debate on natural resources and development, VoxEU.org, May 28 2012.

Bretschger, Lucas, Christa Brunnschweiler, Lisa Leinert, Karen Pittel, und Therese Werner (2010), Preisentwicklung bei natürlichen Ressourcen: Vergleich von Theorie und Empirie, Umwelt-Wissen Nr. 1001, Bern: Bundesamt für Umwelt.

Bretschger, Lucas and Christa Brunnschweiler (2010), The Swiss Approach to Sustainability: Challenges for Environmental, Energy, Land Use, and Transport Policies, Policy Brief Series 10/2, ETH Zurich . Also appeared in: Ernst Baltensperger, Dirk Niepelt and Boris Zürcher (eds.), Wirtschaftspolitik nach der Krise, Study Center Gerzensee / Avenir Suisse.

Recent working papers

Click here for a complete list of downloadable working papers .

Sheheryar Banuri (UEA), Christa Brunnschweiler and Deanna Karapetyan (Financial Conduct Authority UK) (2026). The Benefits of Intentions: Deliberate Harm Avoidance and Consumer Responses (submitted)  
Abstract: This paper investigates why firms engage in costly environmental and ethical practices, focusing on whether consumer responses depend on firms’ intentions or outcomes. Existing literature links ESG practices to positive performance and stakeholder rewards, but most evidence is observational and cannot disentangle intentionality from outcomes. Using a controlled experiment, we examine consumer reactions when firms choose between a “clean” technology (avoiding harm at a cost) and a “dirty” technology (higher returns with negative externalities). Two treatments isolate intentionality: Random Choice versus Willful Choice. After observing the firm’s choice and the resulting externality, consumers can respond by transferring (taking away) resources to the firm in a give-or-take Dictator Game. We find a pronounced asymmetry in how intentions matter. Consumers punish firms whenever a negative externality is incurred, regardless of intentionality, indicating that punitive responses are largely outcome-driven. By contrast, when harm is avoided, intentions play a central role: firms that deliberately choose to prevent a negative externality are treated with significantly greater leniency than firms for which absence of harm arises randomly, reflected in positive transfers on average. These findings highlight that intentionality affects punitive responses and helps explain why firms may voluntarily adopt costly ethical practices when choices are observable.

Christa Brunnschweiler, Tiara Elgifienda (Universitas Bangka Belitung), Håkon da Silva Hyldmo (NTNU), Nanang Kurdiawan (Universitas Gadjah Mada), Päivi Lujala (University of Oulu), Primi Putri (Universitas Gadjah Mada), and Sabrina Scherzer (NTNU) (2026). Making CSR work: Evidence from Indonesia’s tin mining province.

Abstract: The mining sector often drives economic growth in low- and middle-income countries but can cause significant environmental and socio-economic harm to local communities. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, increasingly mandated in some host countries, seek to mitigate these impacts through development projects. In Indonesia, the Program Pengembangan Masyarakat (PPM) requires mining firms to allocate funds for local development, yet its effectiveness is limited by low public awareness and governance issues. We run a pre-registered survey experiment with 610 respondents in 35 tin-mining communities to test whether information and real-world examples, presented through two short video treatments, enhance knowledge and impact rights perceptions and intended and observed behavior. Our findings show that the pure information treatment (T1) has a positive impact on respondents’ beliefs that they have a right to benefit from tin mining revenues. Adding positive examples of PPM projects to the information treatment (T2) amplifies this effect and has an overall stronger impact on all survey outcomes, positively affecting respondents’ perceptions of their rights to benefit and influence decision-making, and increasing the likelihood that they will request more information on PPM and local development.

Amelie Allegre (UEA), Oana Borcan (UEA) and Christa Brunnschweiler (2025). Gendered Impacts of Colonial Education: The Role of Access and Norms Transmission in French Morocco. NTNU Department of Economics WP 2/2025 or CESifo WP 11725 (submitted).
Abstract: We examine colonial-era primary education as a determinant of modern-day attainment and gender disparities in education. We construct a novel dataset from the French Protectorate in Morocco, combining archival data on colonial school locations in 1931 and 1954 with the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data in arbitrary grids. We analyse the influence of colonial schools on the probability of attaining primary and secondary education in 2004. Overall, schools dedicated to Moroccans in 1931 exhibit a persistent positive impact on education outcomes, but only in the absence of nearby schools reserved for Europeans. Stark gender gaps in access during the Protectorate were narrowed in places with schools for Jewish Moroccans. These had a positive impact on girls' contemporary levels of education, but a negative impact on the enrolment for boys following the dismantling of Jewish communities after 1948. DHS measures of preferences for female education point to a social norms transmission mechanism between Jewish and Muslim Moroccan communities.

Selected current projects

Allies and prosociality in conflict areas: Evidence from the war in Ukraine, with Oana Borcan (UEA), David Hugh-Jones (UEA), Oleksandra Keudel (Kyiv School of Economics), and Amrish Patel (UEA). Pre-analysis plan registered with AEA RCT registry We are planning a third survey wave to follow up on our results from May 2022 and June 2023.
Abstract of first-wave results: Survival in an armed conflict also depends on citizens undertaking prosocial behaviors that involve helping others at personal cost. We look at how an ongoing violent conflict affects two forms of prosociality -- donation behavior and volunteering -- and whether matching donations, and the identity of the matched donor, can influence prosocial behavior. We run an online lab experiment in Ukraine in May 2022. We randomly assign participants in our experiment to either a matched donation or no-match (our control group), varying the identity of the matched donors (Ukrainian, Western, or unspecified). We find that there is no overall significant impact of matching donors or matched donor identity on donations or intentions to volunteer. However, respondents most directly affected by the conflict donate on average 20 percent less in the control group, and they increase donations by 42 percent when matched with donors identified as Ukrainian or Western. An identified donor also doubles the share of those who express an intention to volunteer (conditional on not having volunteered before). By contrast, having an unidentified matched donor has no impact on our outcomes. An examination of the reasons for donation decisions reveals that identified matched donors act as allies who support prosociality amongst those most affected by conflict. We do not find any significant effects of the treatments on preferences such as risk, reciprocity, trust or altruism.

Power to learn: Reliable electricity and education in India, with Aayushi Awasthy (KAPSARC) and Corrado di Maria (UEA)
Abstract: Access to electricity is viewed as a cornerstone for economic development. We use data from two survey waves covering over 41,000 households in India to examine the links between the reliability of electricity available to households in India and children's learning outcomes, as well as the intervening mechanisms. Our results show strong positive links between the reliability of electricity and the probability of children achieving higher math, reading and writing scores. We also find that the two most plausible channels of transmission for these effects are increased time spent on homework and fewer days missed at school. Both girls and boys benefit from more reliable electricity, with no systematic gender differences. These results hold using an alternative, more fine-grained classification of electricity reliability, and we find evidence for causal relationships. The results suggest that reliable electricity is an important component of reaching basic educational policy goals in a developing country context.

Reliable electricity, income and employment in India, with Aayushi Awasthy (KAPSARC) and Corrado di Maria (UEA)
Abstract:  Electrification is often seen as a silver bullet for economic development but little or no attention is paid at the policy level to the reliability of the electricity supply. We use data spanning two decades (1994-2015) and over 41,000 households across 30 Indian states to understand whether the quality of electrification matters for development. We show that good-quality electrification is crucial to increasing individual incomes and that only a very reliable electricity supply is able to secure these benefits for women in particular. Greater labour force participation and a shift from precarious to non-precarious work are identified as likely mechanisms through which these gains accrue to individuals. Our results suggest that policy targets should focus more explicitly on the quality of electrification.

Retired projects

Property rights, oil and income levels: Over a century of evidence, with Simone Valente

Did history breed inequality? Colonial factor endowments and modern income distribution, with Matthew Baker and Erwin Bulte

Why do doctors strike? Survey evidence on the 2016 junior doctors' strike in England, with Enrique Fatas and James Rowson