Giacomo Zanello
Working with a range of talented co-authors and using both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data, my current research agenda includes three main topics:
Google Scholar profile | ORCid profile
We show that time allocation could be used as an indicator of the effects of oil palm expansion and adoption on well-being and that potential effects of time scarcity should be considered by policy makers when making land use decisions.
Oil palm and gendered time use: A mixed-methods case study from West Kalimantan, Indonesia
PDF | Published | Forest Policy and Economics (2022) 137, 102682.
We suggest a framing that deals with interdependencies and temporal dynamics of causes of resistance to a change in direction of agri-food system.
Why are agri-food systems resistant to new directions of change? A systematic review
PDF | Published | Global Food Security (2021) 31, 100576.
Mobile phone diffusion has a positive association with rural healthcare access. However, the potential behavioural consequences of ‘‘informal mHealth” reinforce the notion that mobile phones are a non-neutral platform for mHealth and development interventions.
You’ve Got a Friend in Me: how social networks and mobile phones facilitate healthcare access among marginalised groups in rural Thailand and Lao PDR
PDF | Published (Open Access) | World Development (2021) 137, 105156.
Integrating energy expenditure data derived from wearable tri-axial accelerometers with time-use data, we provide insights into women’s responses to opportunities for productive work and highlight the nature of trade-offs they face.
Gender, time-use, and energy expenditures in rural communities in India and Nepal
PDF | Published (Open Access) | World Development (2020) 136, 105137.
The promotion of microfinance as market-based relief and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic should be a source of concern, not comfort.
Compounding crises of social reproduction: microfinance, over-indebtedness and the COVID-19 pandemic
PDF | Published (Open Access) | World Development (2020) 136, 105087.
Drudgery reduction can have large effects on human energy (calorie) requirements, with an hour of drudgery reduction reducing energy requirements by 11–22 % for men and 13–17 % for women in Ghana and India.
Drudgery reduction, physical activity and energy requirements in rural livelihoods
PDF | Published | Economics & Human Biology (2020) 37, 100846
There is an heterogeneous association between gender equity and household-level food security. High-quality research is needed to establish the impact of gender equity on nutrition outcomes across contexts.
The impact of gender equity in agriculture on nutritional status, diets, and household food security: a mixed-methods systematic review
PDF | Published (Open Access) | BMJ Global Health (2020) 5(3), E002173
Energy expenditure, time-use, and food intake data for 360 individuals followed for 28 days in rural Ghana, India, and Nepal.
Physical activity, time use, and food intakes of rural households in Ghana, India, and Nepal
PDF | Published (Open Access) | Scientific Data (2020) 7, 71
Improved crop diversity over the year is positively associated with dietary diversity in the regular season, but not in the lean season. Livestock species diversity remains important for dietary diversity throughout the year, but particularly so in the lean season when the influence of cropping diversity is low.
Buy or Make? Agricultural production diversity, markets and dietary diversity in Afghanistan
PDF | Published (Open Access) | Food Policy (2019) 87
A general lack of dietary diversity during much of the year is likely to cause micronutrient malnutrition, especially for the vulnerable groups of children, adolescent girls and women.
Food production and consumption in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan: the challenges of sustainability and seasonality for dietary diversity
PDF | Published (Open Access) | International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (2019) 17(6), 413-430
Locally specific conceptions and counterintuitive practices around antimicrobials can complicate AMR communication. Overcoming ‘knowledge deficits’ alone will therefore be insufficient for global AMR behaviour change.
Antibiotic knowledge, attitudes, and practices: new insights from cross-sectional rural health behaviour surveys in low- and middle-income South-East Asia
PDF | Published (Open Access) | BMJ Open (2019) 9(8). E028224
Microlevel treatment-seeking behaviour can contribute to an understanding of behaviour beyond awareness and free choice.
Antibiotics and activity spaces: Protocol of an exploratory study of behaviour, marginalisation and knowledge diffusion
PDF | Published (Open Access) | BMJ Global Health (2018) 3:e000621
Integrating energy expenditure data from wearable accelerometry devices with data on activity and time-use can provide a window into agricultural and rural livelihoods in developing countries.
Physical activity, energy expenditures, and time use in agriculture and rural livelihood: Protocols and preliminary findings from a pilot study in northern Ghana
PDF | Published (Open Access) | Development Engineering (2017) 2: 114-131
Inovation positively impacts the labour productivity of firms, technological innovations more than managerial innovations.
Innovation and productivity in formal and informal firms in Ghana
PDF | Published | Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2017) 131: 315-325
There are important differences in the drivers of improvements in child nutrition between severely stunted and moderately stunted children and between rural and urban areas.
What Explains Cambodia’s Success in Reducing Child Stunting-2000-2014?
PDF | Published (Open Access) | PLoS ONE (2016) 11(9). E0162668
Positive linkage between sheep ownership and anemia risk is at least partly due to consumption arising from own-production in the presence of market incompleteness.
Reducing anemia prevalence in Afghanistan: socioeconomic correlates and the particular role of agricultural assets
PDF | Published (Open Access) | PLoS ONE (2016) 11(6), E0156878
Innovation in developing countries is about creation or adoption of new ideas and technologies; but the capacity for innovation is embedded in and constituted by dynamics between geographical, socioeconomic, political and legal subsystems.
The creation and diffusion of innovation in developing countries: A systematic literature review
PDF | Published | Journal of Economic Surveys (2016) 30(5): 884–912
Market information from a broader range of markets may not always induce farmers to sell in more distant markets; instead farmers may use broader market information to enhance their bargaining power in closer markets.
Transaction costs, information technologies, and the choice of marketplace among farmers in Northern Ghana
PDF | Published | Journal of Development Studies (2014) 50(9): 1226-1239
Information sources appear to be the main determinant of the reliability of price information rather than the media (mobiles or radios).
Information sources, ICTs and price information in rural agricultural markets
PDF | Published | European Journal of Development Research (2014) 26: 815-831
Poor dietary choices among the EU elderly are not caused by insufficient resources. Informational measures could be successful in promoting healthy eating for healthy ageing.
Sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the EU elderly: a comparative analysis in four countries
PDF | Published (Open Access) | Public Health Nutrition (2014) 17(5): 1177-1189
Public health interventions aimed at overcoming rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes need to focus on bridging gaps in socio-economic endowments of rural and urban households and improving the quality of rural infrastructure.
Rural-Urban disparities in child nutrition in Nepal and Bangladesh
PDF | Published | BMC Public Health (2013) 13:581
Mobile phones can reduce searching costs, whereas radios provide an updated and regular flow of information which affects the pattern of crops consumed and sold. Awarded the 2011 essay prize of the Agricultural Economics Society.
Mobile phones and radios: Effects on transactions costs and market participation for households in northern Ghana
PDF | Published | Journal of Agricultural Economics (2012) 63(3): 694–714
Two are the main areas where citizen agency and ICT can reinforce each other in bottom–up and horizontal processes: participation and engagement of citizens, and the diffusion of information.
Strengthening citizen agency through ICT: an extrapolation for Eastern Africa
PDF | Published | Public Management Review (2011) 13(3): 363-382
Accelerometry: A practical tool for obtaining human energy expenditure data
PDF | Published | IMMANA Policy Briefing Note (2020)
Using Accelerometers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Field Manual for Practitioners
PDF | Published | University of Reading, Reading (UK) (2019)
Rural transformation and the double burden of malnutrition among rural youth in low and middle-income countries
PDF | Published | Background paper for the 2019 IFAD Rural Development Report. Rome (Italy) (2018)
Innovation in low income countries: A survey report
PDF | Published | University of Oxford, Oxford (UK) (2014)
Innovation under the radar as a response to constraints: the nature of innovation in Africa. In: Fu, X. (ed.) Innovation under the Radar: The Nature and Sources of Innovation in Africa
Published | Cambridge University Press (UK) (2020)
Physical activity, time use, and food intakes of rural households in Ghana, India, and Nepal 2017-2018
Published (Open Access) | UK Data Service, Colchester (UK) (2019)
Antibiotics and activity spaces: rural health behaviour survey in Northern Thailand and Southern Laos 2017-2018
Published (Open Access) | UK Data Service, Colchester (UK) (2019)
Sharing work and food within the household: A dyadic analysis of couple interdependence in time allocation
Physical activity, food intake and time use patterns among adolescents: Stylised facts between caste groups in Telangana, India
Posture-based classification using multiple accelerometers: An example analysis of livelihood activities of rural households in Ghana
Patterns of physical activity and time use among adolescents in rural Telangana, India
Towards a full picture of the nutrition transition among adolescents: Innovative methodological approaches to assess physical activity
Vignette experiment on the acculturation of internal migrants in the Kenyan Rift Valley