Robert Sparrow

Robert Sparrow is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics and an Associate Professor in the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University, Netherlands. He also holds positions as Associate Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Research Fellow at IZA (Bonn, Germany). He serves as Editor of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies.

He earned a PhD from VU Amsterdam/Tinbergen Institute in 2006. His research focuses on health economics, development economics, trade liberalization, poverty reduction, and social policy, with a strong emphasis on Indonesia and Ethiopia.

His recent work examines the impact of trade liberalization on gender labor outcomes, healthcare financing reforms, and the economic consequences of health shocks in low-income settings. He has published extensively in top journals such as the IMF Economic Review, Economic Development and Cultural Change, and Social Science & Medicine.

His research spans topics like child health outcomes, energy policy, and social safety nets, with a focus on evidence-based policy analysis in developing countries.