Lisa Hoffmann

Since October 2016, I am a Research Fellow and PhD Candidate at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies and the University of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. I received my M.Sc. in Politics, Economics & Philosophy at the University of Hamburg and my B.Sc. in Business Administration and Economics at Goethe-University Frankfurt. My research interests include the economics of religion, corruption, and social conflicts in the context of large-scale land acquisitions. Between 2017 and 2020, I have conducted field research in Ghana, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania. In my research, I use mostly experimental methods to investigate social and economic inclusion in different contexts. My first paper “Universal Love or One True Religion? Experimental Evidence of the Ambivalent Effect of Religious Ideas on Altruism and Discrimination” has been published in the American Journal of Political Science.

My research project at MIASA focuses on the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) on rural livelihoods and social conflict. I have been collecting survey and experimental data of about 2,000 households in Liberia between October and December 2019. Here, I specifically look at the impact of LSLAs on conflict potentials by combining survey data with an economic experiment.