Krister Andersson

Biography & Research

Krister Andersson is the Notre Dame Professor of Sustainable Development in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is a core-affiliated faculty member of the  Pulte Institute for Global Development.

Andersson studies the politics of environmental governance with particular focus on local institutional arrangements and the role they play in explaining policy outcomes. His research, published in four books and some 80 articles and book chapters, examines efforts to pursue improved natural resource governance outcomes in the Global South. His field-based research program has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and numerous other agencies and private foundations.

Andersson earned a B.A. in speech communication from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California; a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy from Schiller International University in Paris; and a Ph.D. in public policy from Indiana University, Bloomington. He was awarded the Giorgio Ruffolo Research Fellowship from Harvard University in 2007. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Andersson was a forestry officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization with postings in Rome; Quito, Ecuador, and Santiago, Chile. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Andersson was professor of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Honors & Awards

• 2025 Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons (Foundation for Ecological Security)

Professional Roles/Positions

• Editorial board member of Nature Scientific Reports (2023-present), Journal of Environmental Management (2018-present), Sustainability (2019-present), and Springer Nature’s book series on Human-Environment Interactions
• Policy advisor to several international research and policy organizations, including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), OECD’s program on Territorial Development; Food and Agriculture Organizations of the UN (FAO); Chile’s National Forestry Institute (INFOR); Ecuador's National Forest Service; Peru’s National Forest Service (SERFOR); Tanzania's Forestry and Beekeeping Division; The Lao PDR’s National Science Council.

Recent Work

• "Effects of forestry decentralization on rural inequality in Nepal" (Nature Sustainability)
• "Development and evaluation of a digital behavioral economics game towards improved understanding of groundwater conservation in southern Colorado" (PLOS Water)
• "Collective PES Contracts Can Motivate Institutional Creation to Conserve Forests: Experimental Evidence" (Conservation Letters)
• "Inequality and its strain on local Governments: Do external interventions Help?" (World Development)
• "Collective Forest Land Rights Facilitate Cooperative Behavior," (Conservation Letters) 
• "Decentralization Can Increase Cooperation Among Public Officials" (American Journal of Political Science
• "Governance Reform, Decentralization, and Teamwork in Public Service Delivery"(Public Administration)
• Voluntary Leadership and the Emergence of Institutions for Self-Governance. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) 

Courses

• Public Policy and Behavioral Science (elective course for master of global affairs)
• Critical Thinking in Pursuit of Sustainability (undergraduate elective course in global affairs)

News & Media

• "Nepal’s green success story has a hidden social gap, Notre Dame research shows"
• "Fighting poverty while preserving forests: new research aims to balance economic gains and environmental conservation"