Assistant Professor Jon Robinson

Assistant Professor Jon Robinson joined the UCSC faculty in Fall 2007 after receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University and his undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science from M.I.T. Jon’s research is in microeconomic development economics. The field of development economics seeks to understand what the constraints are that keep people in developing countries from improving their lives, and what types of programs might help in alleviating those constraints.

Much of his research has used field experiments designed to isolate the effects of various programs on individual behavior. Many of these projects have been conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. To date, his work has focused on several questions, including: What constraints prevent individuals in poor countries from making high return investments in physical or human capital? What effect does risk have on the lives of those in poor countries? And why are new agricultural technologies adopted so slowly in some developing countries?

Jon’s work on these questions has been published in top journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and the Journal of Development Economics. Jon teaches an undergraduate course on development economics as well as a Ph. D. course on the same topic.