Associate Professor Sarah Walker

Associate Professor Sarah Walker

Associate Professor
  • (2015) PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • (2009) Master's of Arts in International and Development Economics from the University of San Francisco
  • (2004) Bachelor's of Arts in Economics and International Relations (dual degree) from Michigan State University
Business School
School of Economics

Sarah is an applied microeconomist. Her research focuses on development, economic history, culture and institutions, and the intersection of these topics with the environment. She received her PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2015 and shortly thereafter joined the School of Economics at UNSW Sydney. Sarah has previously held consultancies with the World Bank, and prior to her academic career, worked for several years in boutique financial services. She now serves on the executive committee for the Adasina Social Justice fund.

Recently, Sarah was awarded the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She is also a 2020 recipient of the Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (ARC). 

You can find her personal website here

  • (2020) Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA)
  • (2020) UNSW Business School Special Research Grant ($25,000)
  • (2019) ARC Discovery Project ($579,000 with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Anne Bartlett)
  • (2018) UNSW Business School Special Research Grant ($24,923 with Anne Bartlett and Paul Munro)
  • (2018) Centre for Social Impact ($9,969 with Pauline Grosjean)
  • (2018) UNSW Linkage Seed Grant ($40,000 with Pauline Grosjean)
  • (2016) UNSW Business School Small Research Grant ($9,980)
  • (2016) UNSW BizLab Faculty Grant ($4,600)

  • (2020) Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research - Australian Academy of Social Sciences
  • (2018) UNSW Business School Global Impact Award 
  • (2018) UNSW President's Award for Collaboration (with Anne Bartlett)

  • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion representative for the School of Economics (2020 to present)
  • Executive committee member for the Adasina Social Justice Index (2020 to present)
  • Co-lead for the UNSW Peace and Conflict project in Northern Uganda through the Institute for Global Development (2017-18)
  • Short term consultant to the World Bankf or the Turkana Economic and Social Impact Analysis (2015-16)
  • Journal referee for: Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, World Development, Labour Economics.