Robert Elliott

Robert Elliott

Business School
Professor of Economics
Director of Research - Department of Economics

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 7700
Email
r.j.elliott@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Business School
University House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Robert Elliott is an applied economist who works at the intersection of international economics, development economics, environmental and energy economics and international business. He has a particular interest in the Chinese economy, firm behaviour, natural disasters and the impact of globalisation on the environment.

He is an editor for the Sustainable Future Policy Lab, a Director of the Trade, Environment, Development and Energy (TEDE) research group, a Co-I on ReLIB as part of the Faraday Institute, a member of Water Challenges in a Changing World IGI and an Affiliate of the Lloyds Bank Centre for Responsible Business.

Professor Robert Elliott is also a part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, engineers, philosophers, linguists, economists, artists, writers, lawyers, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Qualifications

Professor Robert Elliott joined the Department in September 2003. He obtained a BA (Economics) and MA (Economics) at the Universities of Leicester and Essex and studied for his PhD with Professor David Greenaway, Dr Peter Wright and Robert Hine at the University of Nottingham.

Teaching

  • The Global Economy - Year 1
  • China and the World Economy - Year 2

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Elliott is available to supervise PhD students across a broad range of topics including international and development economics and environmental and energy economics. Interdisciplinary topics are encouraged and students will need to be familar with the manipulation of large data sets and econometric techniques and methods.

Research

Professor Elliott is currently working on the “Brexit Uncertainty Index” project. Read the policy brief for further information.

Robert is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics. This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Trade, environment, development and energy (TEDE) group

Robert Elliott's main research covers empirical environmental, international trade, development, energy and labour economics. Specific topics include: Specific topics include:

  • Economics of China and East Asia
  • Empirical environmental economics
  • Empirical international economics
  • Empirical development economics
  • Environmental economic history
  • Globalisation and the environment
  • Economics of natural disasters (floods, typhoons, earthquakes)
  • Biodiversity and deforestation
  • Trade, the environment, FDI and industrial restructuring
  • Economic geography (spatial econometrics)
  • Geographical specialisation and clustering
  • International business and the study of multinationals
  • Global value chains
  • Energy economics

He is currently involved in a related, Leverhulme Trustresearch projects in the general area of "Globalisation and the Environment" with Matthew Cole at the University of Birmingham. 

Read more about “Globalisation and the Environment”.

Find out more about our new MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics.

Grants

ERSC “China – UK energy issues”. Approximately £1 million. Joint with TEDE group members.

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Song, C, Liu, B, Cheng, K, Cole, MA, Dai, Q, Elliott, RJR & Shi, Z 2023, 'Attribution of air quality benefits to clean winter heating polices in China: combining machine learning with causal inference', Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c06800

Lander, L, Tagnon, C, Nguyen-Tien, V, Kendrick, E, Elliott, RJR, Abbott, AP, Edge, JS & Offer, GJ 2023, 'Breaking it down: a techno-economic assessment of the impact of battery pack design on disassembly costs', Applied Energy, vol. 331, 120437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120437

Wu, S, Zhang, J & Elliott, RJR 2023, 'Green securities policy and the environmental performance of firms: Assessing the impact of China's pre-IPO environmental inspection policy', Ecological Economics, vol. 209, 107836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107836

Meier, S, Elliott, R & Strobl, E 2023, 'The regional economic impact of wildfires: evidence from Southern Europe', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 118, 102787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102787

Sales, VG, Strobl, E & Elliott, RJR 2022, 'Cloud cover and its impact on Brazil's deforestation satellite monitoring program: evidence from the cerrado biome of the Brazilian Legal Amazon', Applied Geography, vol. 140, 102651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2022.102651

Meier, S, Strobl, E, Elliott, RJR & Kettridge, N 2022, 'Cross-country risk quantification of extreme wildfires in Mediterranean Europe', Risk Analysis, pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.14075, https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.14075

Camargo-Alvarez, H, Elliott, RJR, Olin, S, Wang, X, Wang, C, Ray, DK & Pugh, TAM 2022, 'Modelling crop yield and harvest index: the role of carbon assimilation and allocation parameters', Modeling Earth Systems and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-022-01625-x

Elliott, R, Nguyen-Tien, V, Strobl, E & Tveit, T 2022, 'Natural disasters and voting behavior: evidence from environmental legislation in the US senate', Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. https://doi.org/10.1086/722540

Nguyen-Tien, V, Dai, Q, Harper, GDJ, Anderson, PA & Elliott, RJR 2022, 'Optimising the geospatial configuration of a future lithium ion battery recycling industry in the transition to electric vehicles and a circular economy', Applied Energy, vol. 321, 119230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119230

Jones, B, Nguyen‐tien, V & Elliott, RJR 2022, 'The electric vehicle revolution: Critical material supply chains, trade and development', World Economy, pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.13345

Cole, MA, Elliott, RJR & Strobl, E 2021, 'Biodiversity and economic land use', Land Economics, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 281-304. https://doi.org/10.3368/le.97.2.281

Lander, L, Cleaver, T, Rajaeifar, MA, Nguyen-Tien, V, Elliott, RJR, Heidrich, O, Kendrick, E, Edge, JS & Offer, G 2021, 'Financial viability of electric vehicle lithium-ion battery recycling', iScience, vol. 24, no. 7, 102787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102787

Cole, MA, Elliott, RJR, Okubo, T & Zhang, L 2021, 'Importing, outsourcing and pollution offshoring', Energy Economics, vol. 103, 105562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105562

Comment/debate

Meier, S, Elliott, RJR & Strobl, E 2023, 'Corrigendum to “The regional economic impact of wildfires: Evidence from Southern Europe” [Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 118 (2023) 102787]', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102823

Other report

Shi, Z, Liu, B, Cheng, K, Elliott, R, Cole, M & Bryson, J 2022, Quantifying the impact of clean air policy interventions for air quality management. University of Birmingham. https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00004040, https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00004040

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Economic and trade policy

Professor Robert Elliott is an applied economist who works at the intersection of international economics, development economics, environmental and energy economics and international business. He has a particular interest in the Chinese economy, firm behaviour, natural disasters and the impact of globalisation on the environment.