Professor Robert Elliott

Professor 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
Twitter
@RobertJRElliott
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, economic history, business history, development economics, environmental and energy economics and international business. He has a particular interest in the Chinese economy, economic history, firm behaviour, natural disasters and the impact of globalisation on the environment.

Research Director of the Department of Economics, a member 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 Centre for Responsible Business.

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”.

Grants

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

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Nguyen-Tien, V, Harper, GDJ & Elliott, R 2026, 'Electric vehicles pass tipping point, breaking the link with oil prices', The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.muvv9mnd3

Fumany, M, Nguyen-Tien, V, Li, N, Elliott, RJR & Lander, L 2026, 'The EV transition: The impact of the EU battery directive on critical material supply, recycling and battery costs', Resources Policy, vol. 112, 105787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105787

Qu, Y, Maddison, DJ, Elliott, RJ & Strobl, E 2026, 'The impact of climate on Indian households’ living costs', Ecological Economics.

O. Bonsu, N, Ababio, M, Appoh, E, Ashinyo, M, Essuman, S & Elliott, R 2025, 'Air pollution, citizen science, and the future of mobility in low- and middle-income countries', Contemporary Social Science, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 66-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2025.2587877

Elliott, RJR & Urquhart, A 2025, 'Bitcoin Research: What Are the New Frontiers?', Financial Review, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 1121-1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/fire.70015

Tong, C, Dai, Y, Cole, M, Elliott, RJR, Bartington, SE, Liu, B & Shi, Z 2025, 'Further improvement in London’s air quality demands more than the Ultra Low Emission Zone policy', npj Clean Air, vol. 1, no. 1, 29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44407-025-00030-9

Zhang, J, Elliott, RJR, Zhang, B & Liu, M 2025, 'Public environmental complaints and regulatory intensity', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 134, 103221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103221

Nguyen-Tien, V, Zhang, C, Strobl, E & Elliott, RJR 2025, 'The closing longevity gap between battery electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles in Great Britain', Nature Energy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01698-1

Cheng, K, Bensassi, S, Elliott, RJR & Strobl, E 2024, 'Constructing a county-level environmental events dataset for China during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911)', Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History. https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2024.2369234

Elliott, R, Maddison, D, Kuai, W & Ozgen, C 2024, 'Eco-innovation and (green) employment: A task-based approach to measuring the composition of work in firms', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 127, 103015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103015

Elliott, RJR, Sun, P & Zhu, T 2024, 'Energy abundance, the geographical distribution of manufacturing, and international trade', Review of World Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10290-024-00544-6

Meier, S, Strobl, E & Elliott, RJR 2024, 'The impact of wildfire smoke exposure on excess mortality and later-life socioeconomic outcomes: the Great Fire of 1910', Cliometrica. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-024-00297-0

Liu, B, Bryson, JR, Sevinc, D, Cole, M, Elliott, R, Bartington, S, Bloss, W & Shi, Z 2023, 'Assessing the Impacts of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone on Air Quality: Estimates from a Machine Learning and Synthetic Control Approach', Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 86, no. 1-2, pp. 203-231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-023-00794-2, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-023-00794-2

Commissioned report

Cole, M, Elliott, R & Zhang, L 2023, A review of FDI and the environment in Asia literature: Are there lessons for climate change mitigation strategies? 2023 edn, Asian Development Bank, Philippines.

Other contribution

Nguyen-Tien, V, Harper, G & Elliott, R 2026, Batteries, coûts, réseaux… L'industrie automobile franchit le point de bascule et peut s'affranchir du pétrole. The Conversation . https://doi.org/10.64628/AAK.ktrwtsrhv

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.