Prof. Esther Blanco, PhD

I am Professor of Economics in the Department of Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and Affiliated Faculty of The Ostrom Workshop, Indiana University, USA, where I contribute to strengthen the research on governance of the commons. 

I am co-PI of the Special Research Area on Credence Goods, Incentives and Behavior (~4 million Euros), leading one project on information provision in green markets and a second one on insurance against information asymmetries. I am also Coordinating Lead Author of the APCC Assessment Report on Climate Change in Austria (2022- 2025, ~2 million Euros), for the chapter on navigating demand-side transformations towards net-zero societies. 

My research examines the factors shaping individual and firm decisions to conserve natural resources. It crosses the fields of environmental, behavioral and experimental economics. Key topics in my research include responses to the scarcity of natural resources, as well as to the fragility of resources and damages due to climate change, including mitigation and adaptation choices. My research spans diverse populations, from university students to non-standard groups in lower-income countries, including pastoralists, farmers, landowners, fishermen, local leaders and legislators.

My most current research focuses on addressing the research gap identified in the latest 2022 IPCC report of Working Group III, focusing on the dynamic interaction between individual, social, and structural drivers of change for climate action. I am working on a systematic evaluation of components of cooperative behavior—individual preferences, strategic behavior, and collective action—in fostering climate-friendly behavior and support for climate policy. Methodologically, I emphasize randomized control trials and field experiments in multi-method studies including complementary data from questionnaires, surveys, interviews and secondary data to assess the robustness and external validity of findings.

5 most relevant publications

1. No crowding out among those terminated from an ongoing PES program in Colombia. 2023 (with Moros, L., Pfaff, A., I. Steinmanis, Velez, M.A, and Vollan, B.) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 120, p. 102826.
2. Competition Among Public Good Providers for Donor Rewards. 2022 (with Struwe, N. and Walker, J.M.) Experimental Economics,  27, pp. 215–24. 
3. Procedural fairness and nepotism among local traditional and democratic leaders in rural Namibia. 2020. (with Vollan, B., Steimanis, I., Petutschnig, F. and Prediger, S.) Science Advances, Vol. 6, no. 15, eaay7651. 
4. Provision of Environmental Public Goods: Unconditional and Conditional Donations from Outsiders. 2018 (with Haller, T. and Walker, J.M.) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 91, pp. 815-831. 
5. Integrating simultaneous prosocial and antisocial behavior into theories of collective action. 2016. (with Basurto, X., Nenadovic, M., and Vollan, B.) Science Advances, 2, e1501220.

List of all publications

List of Research Projects

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