Martine Visser

Martine Visser is a Professor in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town and holds a Ph.D. from Gothenburg University in Sweden. Martine is The Director of the Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit (EPRU; www.epru.uct.ac.za) and a Research Chair with the African Climate & Development Initiative (www.acdi.uct.ac.za). She is also associated with various research units within the School of Economics, including the Research Unit of Behavioral and Neuro-economics Research (RUBEN) and the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU).

Professor Visser specializes in behavioural economic applications to climate change, natural resource use, health and poverty alleviation. She is interested in how behavioural nudges can influence social change and also how social norms and preferences such as trust, cooperation and risk aversion impact on decision making. Martine mainly uses experimental methods (in the lab and in the field) combined with survey analysis and randomized control trials. She is also involved in several projects with the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government, investigating the role of behvioural nudges in water and energy savings.