Senior Lecturer in Economics
University of Roehampton, London, the UK.
Email: thang.dao@roehampton.ac.uk
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the UK
Guest Scientist (2023 - 2024)
Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology & Inland Fisheries
Berlin, Germany.
Welcome to My Webpage!
I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from CORE, Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). My research interests include Economic Growth & Development, Demographic Economics, and Environmental & Resource Economics. I have gained diverse academic experience across Asia (Japan and Vietnam) and Europe (Belgium, Germany, and the UK).
My current research focuses on the novel interplay between climate change-driven environmental degradation, gender inequality, and high population growth as drivers of long-term economic stagnation in countries vulnerable to climate change.
Novel mechanism:
Poor infrastructure amplifies the burden of collecting essential local resources (e.g., water, firewood), disproportionately affecting women.
Climate change exacerbates resource scarcity, forcing women to allocate more time to resource collection for their families daily lives.
This reduces parental investment in girls' education, leading to persistent gender inequality.
Gender disparities delay the demographic transition by sustaining high fertility rates, which in turn create a population momentum.
A larger population intensifies resource degradation through increased production, reinforcing a cycle of stagnation in a low-development phase.
Empirical Evidence: The study uses data from 44 Sub-Saharan African countries (1960–2017) to validate these theoretical predictions.
In addition to this, among other projects, I investigate the emergence of anthropogenic tipping points in coupled human-natural systems, where the heterogeneity of resource users plays a significant role. This is particularly evident in the "effort-sorting effect" observed as resource abundance declines.
Understanding these interaction mechanisms is essential for designing and implementing effective policies that promote sustainability.
Thank you for visiting, and feel free to explore research further here.