Lorena Lombardozzi

Lorena is a Development Economist with extensive experience in the global south and particularly in Central Asia. Between 2018 and 2024, she was Senior Lecturer in Economics and Co-Director of the Innovation, Knowledge and Development (IKD) Research Centre at The Open University, UK.

She obtained her PhD in Economics at SOAS, University of London with the title 'A nexus between the role of the state, market transition and food consumption: The case of Uzbekistan'. Lorena holds an MSc in Political Economy of Development from SOAS. She received a BA and MSc cum laude in Development Economics from La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Lorena has extensive field experience in both academic research and policy. Before returning to academia, Lorena worked as a development economist in Latin America in 2014, in Uzbekistan for the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia from 2010 to 2012, and with the European Commission and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2007 and 2010 in the fields of development economics, international trade, social policy and environmental policy.

Her research interests include theoretical debates on political economy, inequality, growth and distribution as well as applied areas of international development (especially East and Central Asia), gender and feminist economics, labour and work, welfare state and social policy, agro-industrial policy and innovation, food systems, global value chains and research methods in social sciences.