Donna Harris is the Director of Studies in Political Economy at the Department for Continuing Education and Supernumerary Fellow at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford. She is a Behavioural and Experimental Economist who uses interdisciplinary methods that combine psychology, economics, and neuroscience to study individual and group behaviours with policy applications in developing countries. Donna holds a PhD and MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Economics from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She has been awarded research grants from the British Academy and a joint Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), UK. She is also a consultant in the Climate Change and Disaster Risks team at Oxford Policy Management which is an international development consulting firm, working to help low- and middle-income countries achieve growth and reduce poverty and disadvantage through public policy reforms.
Donna's current research examines how social identity and social interactions (through observing other’s choices and face-to-face communication) influence people’s decisions and behaviours in a wide range of contexts. These include resource allocation, charitable giving and social preferences, financial literacy, financial inclusion, and financial decisions (including remittances), in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination and whether social norm enforcement can be used to deter in-group favouritism. She is also interested in understanding behavioural foundations of corruption, particularly the role of social identities, personal connections, and how different policy and behavioural interventions can be used to combat corruption.