André Butler

I am an applied economist specializing in development and environmental economics, currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. My research explores how economic growth drivers in lower-income countries interact with climate variability and natural resource management.

Within this broader agenda, my work examines:

1. Political incentives behind investments in large-scale rural infrastructure.

2. Natural resource exploitation (e.g., groundwater irrigation, soil health) and its impact on spatial economic growth.

3. Formal finance as a tool for building resilience to climate risks.

Methodologically, I employ experimental and quasi-experimental approaches, leveraging high-resolution data from satellite imagery, web scraping, and household surveys. My research has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Public Economics and the World Bank Economic Review, and has been presented at major conferences such as the European Economic Association and Royal Economic Society annual meetings.

Beyond academia, I actively contribute to evidence-based policy discussions, with my work featured on platforms like VoxDev and Ideas for India.

I began my career in the natural sciences, publishing several papers published papers on vegetation atmosphere interactions and its implications for climate change. I transitioned to economics to have a more direct impact on policy.

Research fields:

Applied Microeconomics, Development Economics, Political Economics, Environmental Economics. 

email: andre.butler@gmail.com

Curriculum Vitae