Prof Professor Martine Visser

Prof Martine Visser is the centre director of Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), the South African hub of Environment for Development (EfD). Martine holds the position of Professor in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She is also associated with various research units within the University of Cape Town, including the African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI), the Research Unit of Behavioural and Neuro-economics Research (RUBEN) and the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU).
Martine specialises in behavioural economic applications to climate change, natural resource use and poverty alleviation. She is interested in 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 randomised control trials. Recent experimental and empirical studies have focused on cooperation and risk related to climate change, water conservation and sustainable agriculture. Over the last 10 years she has also worked with big utilities data to study the impact of behavioural nudges and other policy instruments on water and energy consumption. Another strand of her research focusses on grass-roots level interventions aimed at bolstering entrepreneurial activity in the renewable energy and waste minimization sectors. Martine has also worked on several projects investigating the role of local governance and social institutions in the provision of basic services to the poor and its effects on subjective wellbeing.
In 2022 Martine was awarded the Governance and Economics of Ecological Infrastructure Research Chair presented by The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) and co-funded by DSI/NRF-DEA/WRC as part of the implementation of the Water RDI Roadmap. Martine Visser hopes to use this platform to expand research within the newly restructured Natural Capital Collaborative (NatCap), an EfD project which aims to improve the knowledge and empirical experience of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity, water systems, and sustainable agriculture in order to better account for these services throughout the Global South.
The research will aim to understand how Behavioural Economics can help bring positive behaviour change relating to how we manage and protect the commons and specifically regenerate ecological infrastructure.
It will focus firstly on how citizens adapt their behaviour and decision-making to account for the risks caused by increased pressures on the shared commons, and what economic policy instruments and governance structures are most suited to facilitate this.
Secondly, it will focus on how the increased uncertainty caused by the unprecedented levels of global environmental and social change may have a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable, primarily located in developing country contexts. These inequalities may give rise to fairness and justice issues in who may access and who needs to provide payments and inputs towards maintenance and rehabilitation of ecological infrastructure.
By applying a multi-disciplinary understanding and substantial competencies within Behavioural Economics and Ecological Infrastructure, this Chair will bring an innovative scientific perspective, and a focus on knowledge generation through applied, impactful research. Research will be carried out through three research related work packages including WP1: The role of Behavioural Insights in Water Governance and Financing in Unequal Settings, WP2: Local Community Driven Solutions for Collective Action towards maintenance and rehabilitation of Ecological Infrastructure, and WP3: Behavioural drivers of Adaptation and Investment in Ecological Infrastructure in Agricultural Settings. Combined, this portfolio of projects will address the research questions comprehensively by employing a range of quantitative and qualitative research techniques drawing on Big Data analysis, impact evaluation, experimental economics, surveys, and interviewing. A final work package (WP4) addresses the establishment of the Chair and the creation of the ongoing supporting structures.