Franklin Obeng-Odoom joined UNRISD in January 2015 as a Visiting Research Fellow working on (a) the original institutional and social economics of Richard Theodore Ely and how it can be used to reconstruct mainstream urban economics and (b) social development in frontier oil and gas economies in Africa.
He has a PhD in political economy from The University of Sydney, Australia, an MSc in urban economic development from the University College London, United Kingdom, and a B.Sc. (hons) in land economy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
Franklin works on the broad themes of political economy of development, cities, and natural resources. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Property Economics at the School of Built Environment, University of Technology, Sydney in Australia where he teaches urban economics and property and political economy. Previously, he contributed to teaching the political economy of development unit at The University of Sydney. International recognition of his work includes being chosen as a Dan David Prize Scholar for ‘The March Towards Democracy’ and a World Social Science Fellow for ‘Sustainable Urbanisation’.
Selected Publications:
Books
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2015, Reconstructing Urban Economics: Towards a Political Economy of the Built Environment, Zed, London.
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2014, Oiling the Urban Economy: Land, Labour, Capital, and the State in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, Routledge, London.
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2013, Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development: Lessons from Ghana, Routledge, London.
Papers
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2015, 'Oil boom, human capital, and economic development: Some recent evidence', The Economic and Labour Relations Review, March
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2014, 'Africa: On the rise but to where?', Forum for Social Economics, September
- Obeng-Odoom F, 2011, 'The informal sector in Ghana under siege', Journal of Developing Societies, vol.27, no.3 and 4, pp.355-392.