Welcome! My name is Natascha Wagner and I am professor of Applied Economics and Development at the Nijmegen School of Management of Radboud University. I am in charge of the Global Data Lab, which develops databases and instruments for monitoring and analyzing the status and progress of societies, mainly in health, education, and well-being. In its current version the database contains 133 indicators for 131 countries and 1483 sub-national regions. Importantly, the Global Data Lab provides the Subnational Human Development Index that uncovers human development in 1600 regions within 160 countries. We also provide aggregate geo-spatial data for more than 1,800 subnational regions worldwide and a GDL Vulnerability Index that allows to monitor and project socioeconomic vulnerability to climate change. In 2024, the data infrastructure has further grown and includes now a sub-national corruption index. Currently, the GDL research team collaborates with Terre des Hommes NL to collect data on child sexual and labor exploitation, and child marriage across 12 countries worldwide.
Prior to joining Radboud, I have been working as associate professor of Public Health, Development & Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) for almost 10 years. I hold a Doctorate in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (Switzerland). My research interests lie in quantitative methods and evaluations of policy interventions, public health and social programs, international economics/ development, climate change adaptation and resilience building, as well as ICT for health promotion. I have participated in numerous impact evaluation projects in Africa and Asia, ranging from public health to good governance and rural infrastructure and sustainable development programs, applying experimental as well as quasi-experimental impact evaluation techniques. I have been the lead principal investigator of a large scale randomized controlled trial on the impact of information and communication technology in promoting retention and adherence to anti-retroviral treatment in Burkina Faso. In the Philippines, I have studied access to and the quality of public hospitals. A recurring theme in my research is gender and female empowerment, be it in my assessment of bride price payments, polygyny, female genital cutting, gender bias in teaching evaluations or by police officers. Many studies of mine focus on nutritional outcomes and fertility. I am also very interested in all aspects of access to food and the nutrition transition, also related to obesity, exposure to micro-plastics, and access to quality water. The interaction between the natural environment and health as well as preventive activities are topics I am recently working on.
In addition to the wide range of topics my research touches upon, I also employ various econometric techniques in order to adequately exploit the different datasets; these techniques range from state-of-the-art two-way difference-in-difference approaches to 2SLS and synthetic control, including conditional logistic regressions, multiple fixed effects models, clustering techniques, quantile estimations and dyadic regressions, the Mundlak procedure and adjustments for multiple hypothesis testing to name just some prominent examples. Recently, I am venturing into machine learning and AI based algorithms. More information about my research, publications and working papers can be found here.
My research is based on and motivated by field experience. I gained valuable experience in countries as diverse as Senegal, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, and The Netherlands ;-). Some impressions can be found here.
I believe that nowadays challenges for our global community are not only diverse and complex but also need adequate responses in terms of policy and intervention. Here, multidisciplinary research and processes of co-creation can be a means of informing policymakers and practitioners. I am convinced that research needs to be co-designed and co-created with all relevant stakeholders and that collaborations have to rest on deliberative democracy principles involving all relevant stakeholders and their respective knowledge. Therefore, I aim at not only collaborating with and disseminating my research among the academic community but I also share it with international organizations and other development professionals and regularly contribute to public policy discussions on the radio, TV and in print. More information can be found here.
For more detailed information, please have a look at my CV.
Research Interests: Public Health, Planetary Health, Applied Statistics/Econometrics, Impact Evaluation, Survey Design, Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience Building, International Development, Gender