Research FellowRoyal Holloway, University of London
Melanie is Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway, University of London and Fellow at the CESifo Research Network. Her research interests are in applied microeconomics and public economics, particularly the analysis of consumer behaviour and household finance, nutrition, health and education choices.
Education
PhD Economics, Universität Mannheim, 2006
Diploma Economics, Universität Mannheim, 2000
Affiliate student PhD program Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1999
This webinar, co-organised by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR), Covenant University (Nigeria), The World Bank, Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL, UK), and IFS, aimed to provide a platform for a deep dive on relevant evidence and lessons learnt from Nigeria and elsewhere to inform the Clean Nigeria Campaign.
In November last year, Nigeria declared that its water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector was in crisis. A community-level intervention aims to reduce open defecation and improve toilet coverage. So why does it work in some places and not others?
We study the effectiveness of a community-level information intervention aimed at reducing open defecation (OD) and increasing sanitation investments in Nigeria. The results of a cluster-randomized control trial conducted in 247 communities between 2014 and 2018 suggest that average impacts are exiguous.
Inadequate sanitation is a leading cause of poverty in developing countries, largely because it causes premature mortality. But policymakers in Nigeria still struggle to improve sanitation practices despite their importance to national health and poverty eradication strategies.
Even short financial education programmes can change how adolescents make intertemporal choices - the basis of consumption and savings decisions, and more sophisticated financial decision-making more generally.
We study the effectiveness of a community-level information and mobilization intervention to reduce open defecation (OD) and increase sanitation investments in Nigeria. The results of a cluster-randomized control trial in 246 communities, conducted between 2014 and 2018, suggest that average impacts are exiguous.
The rise in obesity has largely been attributed to an increase in calorie consumption. This column investigates this claim by examining the evolving consumption and lifestyles of English households between 1980 and 2013. While there has been an increase in calories from restaurants, fast food, soft drinks, and confectionery, there has been an overall decrease in total calories purchased. This decline in calories can be partially rationalised with weight gain by the decline in the strenuousness of work and daily life, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
The rise in obesity has largely been attributed to an increase in calorie consumption. We show that official government household survey data indicate that calories have declined in England between
1980 and 2013; while there has been an increase in calories from food out at restaurants, fast food, soft drinks and confectionery, overall there has been a decrease in total calories purchased.
In Budget 2016 the Chancellor announced a “soft drinks industry levy” due to take effect from April 2018. The charge will be levied on soft drinks that contain added sugar and is aimed at “help[ing] tackle childhood obesity.” It has followed calls from various bodies for intervention to reduce people’s sugar consumption. In a new IFS briefing note we examine the main sources of dietary sugar purchased by households and lay out some of the economic issues related to the introduction of a tax on sugar. We also consider the rationale behind government intervention of this sort.
In the recent Budget, the Chancellor introduced a tax on the sugar content of soft drinks, citing concerns about childhood obesity. This tax will be introduced in 2018 and will not apply to fruit juices or milk-based drinks. It has followed calls from various bodies for intervention to reduce people’s sugar consumption. In this briefing note, we provide some descriptive evidence on the main sources of dietary sugar and we lay out some of the economic issues related to the introduction of a tax on sugar.
Many initiatives worldwide aim at improving financial literacy through targeted education programs, yet there is little evidence regarding their effectiveness. The authors examine here the impact of a short financial education program on teenagers in German high schools.
The authors study the impact of financial education on intertemporal choice in adolescence, their findings suggesting that the effect of such educational programs is to increase comprehension and decrease bracketing in intertemporal choice.
There has been a marked increase in body weight across much of the developed world. This has taken place, even though data suggest that there has not been an increase in calories consumed. This leads to a puzzle. If calories are declining, why are people gaining weight?
