Faculty
C. Leigh Anderson
Marc Lindenberg Professor for Humanitarian Action, International Development, and Global Citizenship
Leigh Anderson joined the Evans School faculty in 1997. Her current research focuses on rural poverty and agriculture, and how market and policy institutions affect individual decision-making.
Anderson founded and directs the Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR) who work on a range of topics focused on agricultural measurement and evaluation, and risk and inclusion, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. EPAR works to improve the accessibility and utility of agricultural data through publicly available code, technical reports and visualizations. EPAR’s research is primarily supported by the Agricultural Development and Gender Equality teams at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Anderson teaches courses in economics, statistics, and international economic development.
Anderson previously taught at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She has also taught or been a visiting researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan, Renmin University of China in Beijing, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.
Anderson is a recipient of the University of Washington’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the UW’s Department of Economics Henry T. Buechel Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.
- C. Leigh Anderson, Rebecca Toole, Carly Schmidt, and Gary L. Darmstadt, Strengthening Theories of Change in Women’s Group Interventions to Improve Learning, Journal of Global Health, December 13, 2023.
- Kristie L. , Leigh Anderson, Jeremy J Hess, Soo-Hyung Kim, Irakli Loladze, Rebecca Neumann, Deepti Singh, Lewis Ziska, Robert Wood, (2021) “Nutritional quality of crops in a high CO2 world: an agenda for research and technology development” Environmental Research Letters.
- Adegbite, Olayinka O., Machethe, Charles L. and Anderson C. Leigh (2021). “Revisiting the measurement of financial inclusion of rural smallholder farmers in Nigeria”, Agricultural Finance Review.
- Anderson, L., Reynolds, T., Biscaye, P., Patwardhan, V. (2021) “Economic Benefits of Empowering Women in Agriculture: Assumptions and Evidence”. Journal of Development Studies. VOL. 57, NO. 2, 193-208.
- Wineman, A, Alia D., Anderson, C.L. (2020). “Definitions of “rural” and “urban” and understandings of economic transformation: Evidence from Tanzania.” Journal of Rural Studies79:254-268.
- Wineman, A., Njagi, T., Anderson, C. L., Reynolds, T., Wainaina, P., Njue, E., Biscaye, P., Ayieko, M. W (2020). “A case of mistaken identity? Measuring rates of improved seed adoption in Tanzania using DNA fingerprinting”. Journal of Agricultural Economics. http://doi: 10.1111/1477-9552.12368
- Wineman, A., Anderson, C. L., Reynolds, T., Biscaye, P. (2019) “Methods of crop yield measurement on multi-cropped plots: Examples from Tanzania,” Food Security.
- Anderson, L., Reynolds, T. (2019). “Measurement choices with consequences: How we measure yield, crop diversity and smallholders can mischaracterize contributions of agrobiodiversity to smallholder livelihoods.” Invited contribution to Mainstreaming Agrobiodiversity in Sustainable Food Systems, Bioversity International.
- Gugerty, M. K., Anderson, C. L., Biscaye, P. (2019). “Delivering Development? Evidence on Self-Help Groups as Development Intermediaries in South Asia and Africa.” Development Policy Review.
- Alison Cullen, C. Leigh Anderson, Pierre Biscaye, and Travis Reynolds (2018), “Gender-Associated Differences in Cross Domain Risk Perception among Smallholder Farmers in Mali: Implications for Development, Risk Analysis – an International Journal, 38(7), 1361-1377.
- C. Leigh Anderson, Travis Reynolds, Josh Merfeld and Pierre Biscaye (2017), “Relating Seasonal Hunger, Coping and Prevention Strategies: A Panel Analysis of Malawian Farm Households,” Journal of Development Studies, 1-19.
- Pierre Biscaye, Travis Reynolds, and C. Leigh Anderson, (2017) “Relative Effectiveness of Bilateral and Multilateral Aid on Development Outcomes”, Rev Dev Econ.
- Anderson, C. Leigh, Travis Reynolds and Mary Kay Gugerty, (2017) Husband and Wife Perspectives on Farm Household Decision-making Authority: Evidence on Intra-household Accord in Rural Tanzania, World Development.
- Kelly, Allison and C. L. Anderson (2016) “Comparing farmer assessments of soil quality and measured assessments of soil quality in Tanzania: Do they align?” Journal of Natural Resources and Development.
- Cullen, Alison and C. L. Anderson (2016), “Perception and Measurement of Climate Risk and Livelihood Vulnerability Among the Rural Poor in Vietnam.” Risk Analysis.
- Anderson, C. Leigh, Andrew Cronholm, and Pierre Biscaye (2016) “Aligning Agronomic Characteristics with Climate Change: A Case Study of Maize Farmers in Chiapas, México,” invited chapter of the Handbook of Behavioral Economics and Smart Decision-Making. Edward Elgar, Morris Altman ed.
- Reynolds, T., Stephen R. Waddington, C. L. Anderson, A. Chew, Z. True and A. Cullen (2015) “Environmental impacts and constraints associated with the production of major food crops in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Food Security, Vol 7, Issue 4. pp.795-822.
- Rachel Nugent, Carol Levin, Daniel Grafton, Jessica Fanzo, Roseline Remans, and Leigh Anderson (2015). “Indicators for Nutrition-Friendly and Sustainable Food Systems,” chapter 7 in the 2015 Global Nutrition Report: Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development. International Food Policy Research Institute. Washington, DC.