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University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

Dr Janelle Knox-Hayes

Academic Profile

Dr Janelle Knox-Hayes is a visiting research associate at the School of Geography and Environment and an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At Georgia Tech, she teaches classes on research design, sustainability and applied political economy. At Oxford she is involved in ongoing CSR and pension entitlements projects. She is additionally conducting research and public outreach on climate security as a 2009 Truman Security Fellow. Janelle completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a triple major in Ecology (summa cum laude), International Affairs, and Japanese Language in 2004. In 2006 she earned her Master of Science Degree in Nature, Society, and Environmental Policy with Distinction from the School of Geography and the Environment. She completed her D.Phil. at the School of Geography and Environment,University of Oxford, in 2009. Before beginning her graduate studies, Janelle worked for the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, and for the Government Accountability Office in Washington D.C. In 2005, she was selected as a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar.

Current Research

Janelle's research focuses on the political and economic dynamics underpinning energy transition and sustainable development. Her current research focuses on the institutional development of carbon emissions markets in the United States and Europe, with particular emphasis on the economic and policy drivers that develop these markets as well as their impact on social and economic systems. She is concurrently developing a project to investigate the role markets play in communicating social values. Although her research has focused on the United States and Europe, Janelle is interested in expanding this research to Asia to investigate the role of institutional transfer and cultural context on market development. Her dissertation research investigated the development of carbon emissions markets looking through the lens of regulatory and financial service institutions, with the use of surveys, interviews, and close-dialogue. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. In addition she has conducted research with Professor Gordon Clark which maps and describes the socio-demographic characteristics of UK pension entitlements.

Publications