Yonas Alem is a Research Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town and an invited researcher at MIT’s J-PAL King Climate Action Initiative. He earned his PhD from the University of Gothenburg, where he also held various academic positions within the Department of Economics and the Environment for Development (EfD) initiative, complemented by visiting fellowships at UC Berkeley and Brown University. As an applied microeconomist focused on Africa and South Asia, his research employs rigorous causal inference and randomized controlled trials to explore the intersection of development, behavioural, and environmental economics, with specific expertise in preference formation, decision-making, poverty dynamics, technology adoption, and shocks. His ongoing work further investigates small firms’ investment decisions under behavioural and market frictions. Beyond his scholarship, Yonas has dedicated two decades to capacity building in the Global South through institutional development, graduate training, and the mentorship of emerging researchers.
