2025–2026
Consultant
United Nations Development Programme, for South Sudan’s first Multidimensional Poverty Index report
About
Igor B. Martins
I am an economic historian studying the origins and persistence of inequality, with a primary focus on Africa. My research examines how ownership, labour markets, access to finance, and political power shape economic development and influence how well people and countries withstand periods of crisis and change.
I build and analyse large datasets from historical records to study how major economic changes affect wealth, work, health, and living standards. Across this research, I ask how existing differences in wealth and power influence who bears the costs of a crisis, who benefits from recovery and growth, and whether inequality carries over to the next generation.
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University and am also affiliated with the Department of Economic History at Lund University. I hold an MSc and PhD in Economic History from Lund University and have previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Lund and the University of Cambridge. My work contributes to research projects supported by the Swedish Research Council, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Handelsbanken Research Foundations, and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. I have also carried out research and consultancy for STINT and the United Nations Development Programme.
Roles and service
2023–2025
Conference manager
19th World Economic History Congress, Lund
2023–2024
Consultant
STINT, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education
Since 2023
Peer reviewer
Studies in Comparative International Development, Studies in Higher Education, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and other journals
2022–2023
Affiliated postdoctoral member
Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
Since 2021
Treasurer, then auditor
Swedish Economic History Association
Since 2017
Visiting researcher
Laboratory for the Economics of Africa’s Past, Stellenbosch University
Get in touch
Postal address
Department of Economic History
Lund University
Box 7083
SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden
Visiting address
Room 2060, Alfa 1
Scheelevägen 15B
223 63 Lund, Sweden