Welcome to My Homepage
I am Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex, working in development and agricultural economics. Much of my research is about how farmers in India and sub-Saharan Africa make decisions — about their soils, about new technologies, about land — and how the information available to them shapes what they do.
My recent research projects have been on sustainability: soil degradation across sub-Saharan Africa; the uptake of drought-tolerant and pest-resistant crop varieties, antibiotic use among livestock farmers, and the transition to climate-smart farming in Europe.
Within these themes, I have a long-standing interest in social networks, learning and social norms in economic decision-making. I have studied how farmers learn from extension agents, from the traders who sell them inputs, and from one another, and more recently how migration and shared ideas about fairness shape land markets.
I am also interested in gender. My work on the institution of marriage in India has looked at the effects of early marriage and the role of the extended family, and I have studied an adult education programme for women and its effects on their status and decision-making power.
Most of my projects involve fieldwork: household data collection, lab-in-the-field experiments and randomised controlled trials. Fieldwork lets me ask questions that standard surveys leave out and gives me a closer understanding of the issues, which often sparks ideas for future research.
Contact Information
Department of Economics
Jubilee Building 279
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK
Email: A.Maertens@sussex.ac.uk
Annemie Maertens - Homepage - Updated March 2025