Rocco Zizzamia

I am a Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the Oxford Department of International Development and, from September 2026, a Senior Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. I remain an associate member of the Centre for the Study of African Economies in the Department of Economics.

My research increasingly focuses on education, alongside continuing work on social protection and household resilience to climate shocks. Much of my current work uses field experiments to study how social protection and education systems can be made more resilient to climate extremes such as floods and droughts — through cash transfers, remote learning, and phone-based tutoring that protect children’s learning during crises. A related strand studies the dynamics of learning itself: whether there are thresholds in foundational skills beyond which gains become self-sustaining, and the labour-market returns to schooling in Africa. In earlier work I researched labour markets, inequality, poverty alleviation, poverty dynamics, and social stratification, using longitudinal surveys, field and lab experiments, and qualitative studies.

I am an African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research affiliate, a SALDRU research affiliate, and a Berlin University Alliance fellow. From 2023 to 2025 I was affiliated to Somerville College as a Fulford Junior Research Fellow. I am an Associate Editor at Oxford Development Studies and editor of the CSAE Working Paper Series.

I feel most myself when I am doing difficult things in wild places. In my free time I run, climb and ride my bike.