Dr Peter Jacobs is a Research Director (Acting Strategic Lead: Changing Economies) in the Inclusive Economic Development (IED) division. His areas of research interest include: the economics of agrarian change and rural socio-economic transitions, with special emphasis on land reform and small-scale farming, socioeconomic dynamics of rural innovation, agro-food systems and food and nutrition security. As an experienced principal investigator, he has successfully completed several large-scale research projects that blend different methodologies.
He holds a PhD in Economics from Fordham University (New York) and a C1 researcher rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). Before joining the HSRC in 2007, he was the Head of Department in Economics at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He also worked on land reform policy issues at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at UWC. In 2015 he won the HSRC capacity development award and in 2016 received the prestigious Fulbright Research grant to complete a new book manuscript at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Dr Jacobs' publication record spans the authoring and co-authoring of more than one hundred journal articles, book chapters, research reports and conference presentations on gender equity, agricultural markets, innovation, food and nutrition security, pro-poor budgeting and political economy viewpoints. He has co-edited special issues of well-known journals such as AGREKON (on Household Food Security status) and Development Southern Africa (on Sustainable Rural Development in South Africa). His edited volume, Equitable Rural Socio-Economic Change (HSRC Press, 2019), examines the nature, scale, trajectories and speed of modern socioeconomic transitions across varied rural landscapes.
