Dr Giulia Ferrari is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She is a co-Investigator on the methodological innovations research programme of the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub. She is the Principal Investigator on the economic evaluation of a cash transfer plus life skills training in Pakistan (funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)l and of the National Plan for the prevention of child marriage in Bangladesh (funder: UNICEF and UNFPA). She is also collaborating with UNFPA to determine the global costs of prevention violence against women and girls.
Giulia is a health economist with 18 years’ research experience in violence, international development, measurement and health, including in fragile and conflict settings. She has worked on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Western Europe. Some of her publications are below. A full list can be found on Scopus, Google Scholar, or the LSE Research Online platform.
Giulia applies econometric methods to the analysis of quantitative data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to measure the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions. She applies multivariate statistical methods for dimension reduction to quantitative and qualitative (textual) data to generate synthetic indices and identify themes in context, respectively. Her experience also includes the econometric analysis of large datasets, including the DHS and MICS surveys. Her work focuses on three areas: 1. Measuring wellbeing, including by developing new proxy indices from existing datasets, analysing associations between wellbeing and socio-economic characteristics in longitudinal datasets, and testing the causal impact of behavioural interventions on wellbeing with data from RCTs; 2. Measuring the effectiveness of prevention and response interventions for violence against women and girls (VAWG), including in fragile settings (Burundi), and 3. Measuring the value for money (cost-effectiveness) of VAWG prevention and response interventions in both HICs and LMICs; and designing tools to facilitate cost data collection for programme managers.
Giulia’s research has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, the WHO bulletin, Social Science and Medicine, Health Policy and Planning, BMJ Open, PlosOne, Global Health Action, as well as in the NBER and the CEP working and discussion paper series. She serves as a reviewer for academic journals, including The Lancet Public Health and Social Science and Medicine, and has refereed for the British Academy and the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA). Giulia has published blogs and has media experience, including social media and TV.
Before joining the LSE in 2020, Giulia was a Research Fellow with the Gender Violence and Health Centre (GVHC) and a member of the Centre for Health Economics in London (CHiL) at LSHTM between 2015 and 2019, a Research Associate at the University of Bristol (2012-2014), a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College, London (2012) and an LSE Fellow (2011/2012). She has a PhD in International Development and an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Social Disciplines (Des) from Bocconi University (Italy). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and is affiliated with the Bristol Medical School at the University of Bristol. She has worked as a consultant in the international and sustainable development fields for various organisations, including the European Commission, the American Institutes for Research, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United Nations, and the World Bank.
Selected peer reviewed papers
Informing the measurement of wellbeing among young people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa for policy evaluations: a mixed-methods systematic review. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 18, 1-34 (2000) (with D Govindasamy, J Seeley, ID Olaru, A Wiyeh, C Mathews)
What will it cost to prevent violence against women and girls in low- and middle-income countries? Evidence from Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia. Health Policy and Planning (2000) (with Torres-Rueda S, Orangi S, et al)
A qualitative enquiry into the meaning and experiences of wellbeing among young people living with and without HIV in KwaZulu-Nata, South Africa, Social Science & Medicine, 113103 (2000) (with D Govindasamy, K Maruping, P Bodzo, C Mathews, J Seeley)
Economic Evaluation of Public Health Interventions: An Application to Interventions for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls Implemented by the “What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls?” Global Program Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2019) first published online Nov 8 (with Torres-Rueda, S., Michaels-Igbokwe, C., Watts, C., Jewkes, R., Vassall, A.)
Psychological advocacy towards healing (PATH): A randomized controlled trial of a psychological intervention in a domestic violence service setting, PlosOne (2018) Vol 13 (11) (with Feder, G., Agnew-Davies, R., Bailey, J. E., Hollinghurst, S., Howard, L., Howarth, E., Sardinha, L., Sharp, D., Peters, T. J.)
Economic evaluation of a combined microfinance and gender training intervention for the prevention of intimate partner violence in rural South Africa Health Policy and Planning (2011) Vol 26 (5) (with Jan, S., Watts, C. H., Hargreaves, J. R., Kim, J. C., Phetla, G., Morison, L. A., Porter, J. D., Barnett, T., Pronyk, P. M.)
Assessing the incremental effects of combining economic and health interventions: the IMAGE study in South Africa, WHO Bulletin (2009) Vol 87 (11) (with Kim, J., Abramsky, T., Watts, C., Hargreaves, J., Morison, L., Phetla, G., Porter, J., Pronyk, P.)
Book chapters
Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Central and Southern Africa, Chapter 6 in African Successes, Volume II – Human Capital, The University of Chicago Press (2016), Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil (Eds.) (with Radha Iyengar)
Blogs and commentaries
Still a leap of faith: microfinance initiatives for reduction of violence against women and children in low-income and middle-income countries, BMJ Global Health (2018), Vol 3 (6) (with Peterman, A., Palermo, T. M.)
South Africa at 20: Redressing gender imbalances could bring democracy into South African homes, , post on Africa at LSE blog, April 2014
Book reviews
Book Review: The Gender Politics of the Namibian Liberation Struggle by Martha Akawa, post on Africa at LSE blog, March 2015