Elisa Gambino

My research focuses on the intersection between China’s outward economic engagement and Africa’s development trajectories. I study the internationalisation of Chinese capital in the trade, manufacturing, and infrastructure sectors in Africa, placing particular emphasis on the role of embeddedness in fostering the spatial expansion of Chinese companies. 

I joined GDI as a Lecturer in Global Development - Global Political Economy in 2023 and I was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship soon thereafter. In September 2026, I will transition to the position of Lecturer in Globalisation, Trade and Development. I am also affiliated at the Centre of Asian Studies of the University of Ghana. 

I am the co-convenor of the Rising Powers Study Group of the Development Studies Association and the co-founder and co-convenor of The New South Working Group of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes. 

Research-wise, I currently hold a 3-year Hallsworth Fellowship in Political Economy for the project “African hubs, Chinese trade, and global circulation”, which focuses on the implications of the growing presence of Chinese private capital for West African regional integration and industrialisation. Specifically, I research the internationalisation trajectories of Chinese private companies in the trade and manufacturing sectors in Ghana and Togo. As part of this project, I also hold a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for the project “Regulating African markets from afar? Chinese tech giants and South-South trade” to undertake an in-depth case study on the trade of Chinese mobile phones in West Africa. 

Recently, I have become interested in the centrality of taxation to development. I am the PI of an interdisciplinary project titled “Taxation for Development (T4D): Disaggregating foreign firms’ contributions to Ghana’s domestic tax revenues”, which brings together government and university partners in Ghana - namely the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) - to create evidence for fiscal policy reforms.

In GDI, I am research lead of the Global Production Network, Trade, and Labour research group. I am also pathway lead for the MSc in Global Development (Globalisation, Trade, and Industry). I usually convene Work and Employment in the Global Economy (suspended in 25/26) and, currently, I also convene Globalisation, Trade, and Development. 

Previously, I was LSE Fellow in the International Politics of China in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). I also worked as Teaching Assistant in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. 

I obtained my PhD in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh as part of the ERC-funded "African Governance and Space" (AFRIGOS) Project led by Prof Paul Nugent. My doctoral project explored the internationalisation of Chinese state-owned companies in Kenya’s infrastructure sector.

I have also worked as a consultant in the private sector and for government bodies, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Please check out my website for more details on my work. 

• MGDI60271 Globalisation, Trade and Development
• MGDI60131 Work and Employment in the Global Economy (suspended in 25/26)

Previously:

• MGDI60072 Global Political Economy
• MGDI60502 Development Fieldwork (GTI Pathway)

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