Maria Alejandra Vélez

Maria is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Universidad de Los Andes, Director of the Centre of Studies in Security and Drugs (CESED) and Senior Fellow of Environment for Development. Her research interests focus on decision-making and institutional design concerning developing country environmental and natural resource issues and rural development. Using economic field experiments, she has studied local resource sharing and collective action dilemmas of rural villagers in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Honduras. Recently, she has focused on the effects of illicit economies and their policies on natural resources, security problems in the Colombian Pacific and the role of community organizations and leaders in drug and security policy.