School of Built Environment & Development Studies

Gerard Boyce is a micro-economist who holds a PhD in the area of Behavioral Economics. He read for his degree through the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He harbours a wide variety of professional interests, ranging from the effect of psychosocial variables such as hope and perceptions of racial hierarchy on economic attitudes to the inter-relationship between environmental factors and outlook/future orientation.   

Before joining the School of Development Studies, he worked as a social science researcher and health economist at the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). During this time he gained extensive experience in undertaking primary and secondary research through his involvement in a range of projects that were commissioned by provincial and national government departments and several multilateral organisations. In particular, he was engaged in projects which sought to estimate the costs and evaluate the cost effectiveness of a range of social interventions. 

He firmly believes that applied social science research, and academic enterprise and the tools of academic inquiry in general, can be used to gain insights which could inform policies and interventions which are better able to foster sustainable development and have a meaningful societal impact. Based on this conviction, he has begun collaborating with several local civil society organisations in an attempt to partner with them to effect social change.