Robert John Baulch

• PhD (Stanford)
• MA (Sussex)
• BA Hons (Oxford)
• GradCert(RMIT) 

Economics

• Food price analysis 
• Poverty dynamics
• Sustainable urban development
• Applied econometrics
• Agricultural marketing
• Aid
• Human development,
• Social protection
• Sustainable urban development

29 refereed journal articles, 3 edited books, 9 book chapters and numerous reports and working papers since 1995. Key publications since 2016 include

• 2022. Industry 4.0 in Viet Nam: Strengthening Victoria’s Connections with Southeast Asia─Opportunities for Australian Business (RMIT University Australia-with Vinh Thai and others).
  
• 2021 ‘Malawi’s slowly changing employment landscape and its implications for youth’, Development Southern Africa 38 (with Todd Benson, Yanjanani Lifeo and Priscilla Mkwenta)
• 2021  ‘Short-term impacts of COVID-19 on the Malawian economy, 2020-21: A SAM multiplier modelling analysis’. MaSSP Working Paper 37, International Food Policy Research Institute (with Rosemary Botha and Karl Pauw’) 
• 2020 ‘A sentiment analysis of the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in the media and social media; A design science approach’ in Wickramansinghe, N. (ed.) Handbook of Research on Optimizing Health Care Management Techniques, Hershey, PA: IGI Global (with Blooma John and Nilmini Wickramasinghe)
• 2019 ‘Change and rigidity in employment patterns in Malawi’ in Mueller, V. and Thurlow, J. (eds.) Youth and Jobs in Rural Africa, New York: Oxford University Press (with Todd Benson and Alvina Erman)
• 2019 ‘Explaining catch-up in human development: a political economy analysis of the Philippines and Vietnam since 1986’, Asian Development Perspectives 10(1): 1-18
• 2018 ‘Using sparse categorical principal components analysis to estimate asset indices: a new method with application to south-east Asia’, Review of Development Economics 23(May): 640-663 (with Giovanni Merola)
• 2018 ‘Constraints to the uptake of solar home systems in Ho Chi Minh City and some proposals for  improvement,  Renewable Energy 118: 245-256  (with Duong Do Thuy and Thai-Ha Le)
• 2018 ‘Commodity exchanges and warehouse receipt systems in Malawi: current status  and implications for the development of structured markets’, MASSP Working Paper 25, International Food Policy Research Institute  (with Adam Gross, Justice Chimgonda Nkhoma and Chikumbutso Mtemwa),
• 2017  ‘Lean-season food transfers, children’s diets and household food security: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Malawi, Journal of Nutrition 145(5) 869-878 (with Aulo Gelli and others)
• 2016   ‘The poverty focus of Swedish bilateral aid: a comparative analysis’, European Journal of Development Research 28(5): 758-775

Principal/Co-principal investigator for more than 15 major research grants since 1995. Grants since 2016 include:

• USAID Strengthening Evidence Based Agricultural Policy. 2016-17
  
• USAID Agricultural Policy and Program Support to Government of Malawi, 2017-2021
• DFID/FCDO, Building Resilience and Adapting to Climate Change  2018-2020
• European Union Commission Monitoring Farmgate and Retail Market Prices for Legume, Roots & Tubers and Other Cereals, 2018-2022
• Government of Flanders Agricultural and Food Policy Research and Advisory Services to  Malawi, 2020-2022

3 completed PhD/DPhil supervisions plus 1 ongoing

• Merit Awards, International Food Policy Research Institute, 2019-21
• Visiting Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame, Fall semester, 2015
• Two DFID-ESRC Development Research Awards, 2006 and 2008
• Award for Professional Excellence, World Bank 2000; Outstanding Journal Article, American Agricultural Economics Association, 1997
• Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation, American Agricultural Economics Association, 1994
• Prize Fellowship, Stanford University, 1990-93
• Fellow, Overseas Development Institute,1985-1987.
• Postgraduate Studentship, UK Economic and Social Research Council, 1984-85.
  

Member of Agricultural and Economics Association and Development Studies Association. 

2016-2021: Leader and Senior Research Fellow, Malawi Strategy Support Program, International Food Policy Research Institute, Lilongwe, Malawi

• 2021-date: Professor of Economics and interim Deputy Dean (Research & Innovation), The Business School, RMIT University, Vietnam
• 2016-2021: Leader and Senior Research Fellow, Malawi Strategy Support Program, International Food Policy Research Institute, Lilongwe, Malawi
• 2012-2016: Associate Professor (Economics), Centre of Commerce and Management, RMIT University.
• 2011-2012: Faculty Member, School of Business and Economics, Tan Tao University, Vietnam
• 2008-2011: Lead Economist, Prosperity Initiative, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 2001-2008: Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, U.K.
• 1999-2001: Quantitative Poverty Specialist, World Bank Resident Mission, Vietnam 
• 1995-1999: Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, U.K.
• 1993: Affiliate Research Scholar, International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines
• 1991: Consultant, Operations and Evaluation Division, World Bank, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
• 1987-1990: Senior Research Officer, Economic & Statistics Department, Natural Resources Institute, U.K.
• 1985-1987: ODI Fellow, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea