Dr Barbara Roberts

Lecturer in Economics

Contact Details

• Tel: 0116 252 2906
• Email: bbr@le.ac.uk
• Office: AC201, Astley Clarke Building
• Office Hours:  Monday 11:00 - 12:00

                           Thursday 14:00 - 15:00

Research Interests

• Foreign direct investment
• Privatisation
• Transition in Eastern Europe 

Supervision Interests

Foreign Direct Investment. This is a very broad topic allowing for a single country, a cross-country or a cross-industry analysis. There is a range of aspects to examine, such as determinants of FDI, motives for FDI or the effect of FDI on growth.

Globalisation and Firm-level Adjustment. Globalisation affects the behaviour of firms in many ways. There is a range of aspects to examine such as the disciplining effect of foreign competition, exporting decisions, cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Privatisation and Performance. An ongoing debate on the economic and political merits of private versus state ownership motivates further empirical research in this area. There is a range of aspects to examine such as the choice of firms for privatisation, domestic and foreign acquisitions and efficiency effects of ownership change.

PhD Supervision

• Khaled Mohamed (FDI in Egypt)
• Muhammad Ali Saeed (public sector and privatisation)
• Samuel Fosu (firm performance and finance)
• Hind Alofaysan (FDI, oil sector and growth)
• Sahar Khayat (FDI in Arab countries) 

Teaching

• EC2009: Statistics for Economics & Business
• EC3069: International Trade

Administrative Responsibilities

• Student Progress Officer

Most Recent Publications

• 'Privatisations around the world: economic or political determinants?' forthcoming in Economics and Politics, (with M. Saeed)
• 'Source country characteristics and the inflow of foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia', forthcoming in The World Economy, 2009, Vol. 32, pp. 1730-1746, (with A. Almahmood)
• 'Privatisation in Poland: What was the government trying to achieve?', Economics of Transition, 2009, Vol. 17, pp. 531-557 (with G. De Fraja)
• 'Privatisation, foreign acquisition and the motives for FDI in Eastern Europe', Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), 2008, Vol. 144, pp. 408-427, (with S. Thompson and K. Mikolajczyk)

Full listing of publications