Adrienne Lees

Adrienne Lees is a Researcher and PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Sussex's Institute of Development Studies (IDS). She holds a joint academic role as Research Officer at IDS and has previously served as a Senior Economist at Uganda's Ministry of Finance. Her work focuses on tax policy, digital financial services, and public finance in East Africa, leveraging administrative tax data to inform policy. She is supervised by Dr. Giulia Mascagni and Dr. Amalavoyal Chari for her PhD, exploring digital financial services' taxation implications in Uganda.

Education includes a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Cape Town (201?), an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford (2016–2017), and ongoing PhD studies at Sussex since 2021.

Her research spans tax compliance mechanisms, revenue mobilization in lower-income countries, and the socio-economic impacts of digital financial innovations. Notable projects include analyzing Uganda's mobile money tax and Rwanda's tax e-services adoption. She has collaborated with institutions like the World Bank and the International Centre for Tax and Development.

Adrienne has presented at major conferences, including the World Bank Tax & Development Conference and the International Institute of Public Finance Congress. Consultancies include advising Uganda’s Ministry of Finance on post-COVID-19 revenue strategies and assessing tax policymaking processes in Uganda for Oxford Policy Management.

Her work is anchored at the IDS, contributing to evidence-based policy research. She has no listed scientific awards but is actively engaged in impactful development research.