Prof. Esther Blanco

Esther Blanco

Professor of Economics

Cooperation for greener, fairer, knowledge-based societies.

My research examines cooperation under environmental risk, with a particular focus on climate action. Working at the intersection of behavioral science, experimental economics, and climate research, and grounded in the institutional analysis tradition of Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, my research has progressively advanced from understanding fundamentals of human behavior under scarcity of natural resources and damages due to climate change toward designing and evaluating interventions capable of improving resilience.

My ongoing research focuses on the interaction between individual, social, and structural drivers of change for climate action. I am working on a systematic evaluation of components of cooperative behavior—individual preferences, strategic behavior, and collective action—in fostering climate-friendly behavior and support for climate policy. Methodologically, I emphasize randomized control trials and field experiments in multi-method studies including complementary data from questionnaires, surveys, interviews and secondary data to assess the robustness and external validity of findings.

I am co-PI of the Biodiversa+ Consortium PEACE (2026-2029, ~1.8 million Euros), part of the #BiodivTransform call, identified by the European Council as excellent biodiversity research with policy and societal impact. I am also co-PI of the Special Research Area on Credence Goods, Incentives and Behavior (2021-2026, ~4 million Euros), leading one project on information provision in green markets and a second one on insurance against information asymmetries. I served as Coordinating Lead Author of the APCC Assessment Report on Climate Change in Austria (2022- 2025, ~2 million Euros), for the chapter on navigating demand-side transformations towards net-zero societies. I contribute to the scientific community of the Ostrom Workshop, co-funded by Nobel Prize Winner Elinor Ostrom, strengthening the research on commons and governance.

Highlighted ongoing studies

#ManyDesignsCarbon is an innovative crowd-science initiative focused on exploring the influence of behavioral interventions on the social support for carbon pricing. Bringing together teams around the world to answer "What is the impact of behavioral interventions on the real-world support for a price of carbon?"

#Cooperate4Climate builds competences for decision-making for the climate for adolescents; more informed decision-making, more reflective, and intentional in nature, based on individual preferences and possibilities.

5 most relevant publications

Increasing benefits in one-time public goods does not promote cooperation. 2024 (with N. Struwe and J.M. Walker) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121 (41) e2410326121.
Procedural fairness and nepotism among local traditional and democratic leaders in rural Namibia. 2020. (with Vollan, B., Steimanis, I., Petutschnig, F. and Prediger, S.) Science Advances, Vol. 6, no. 15, eaay7651.
Integrating simultaneous prosocial and antisocial behavior into theories of collective action. 2016. (with Basurto, X., Nenadovic, M., and Vollan, B.) Science Advances, 2, e1501220.
No crowding out among those terminated from an ongoing PES program in Colombia. 2023 (with Moros, L., Pfaff, A., I. Steinmanis, Velez, M.A, and Vollan, B.) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 120, p. 102826.
Provision of Environmental Public Goods: Unconditional and Conditional Donations from Outsiders. 2018 (with Haller, T. and Walker, J.M.) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 91, pp. 815-831.