- Westminster Development Policy Network
About me
Serena is Senior Lecturer in International Development and Economics at the University of Westminster's School of Organisations, Economy and Society. Before joining the University of Westminster, she held a post-doctoral position at the University of Oxford's Department for International Development and obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester. She has also held research and technical advisory roles with a number of international development organisations including UNU-WIDER and the World Food Programme.
Serena is co-Research Lead for the Westminster Development Policy Network.
Teaching
I have experience teaching on a number of modules, covering from political economy and development economics to macroeconomics, microeconomics and research methods.
Since 2018, I am Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Research
Selected Publications
COSCO and the privatisation of Piraeus port: A tale of three piers (2024), with Jackson, K. and Li, J., European Journal of Industrial Relations, forthcoming.
Experiences and implications of the first wave of the COVID-19 emergency in Italy: a social science perspective (2023), with Enria, L., International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 12, 6871.
Labour Standards in the Ghanaian Construction Sector: an investigation of the governance landscape (2022), with von Jacobi, Nadia and Akuffobea-Essilfie, Mavis, International Journal of Manpower. 44 (3): 543-557.
Improving Financial Inclusion through the delivery of cash transfer programmes: The Case of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera Programme (2020), with M. Niño-Zarazúa. Journal of Development Studies, 56(1): 151-68.
Indigenous Medicine and Biomedical Health Care in Fragile Settings: Insights from Burundi’ (2018), with J.-B. Falisse and R. Ngenzebuhoro. Health Policy and Planning 2018: 1-11.
What works to improve the quality of student learning in developing countries? (2016), with M. Niño-Zarazúa, International Journal of Educational Development, 48:53-65.
Grant capture
2022: National Centre for Social Research, University of Westminster (Lilian Miles and Serena Masino) and the Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics (£200,000), EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, “Asylum Seeker Decision Making” (March 2022 to October 2022)
2018: GCRF/University of Westminster funding round (Serena Masino and Jean-Benoit Falisse, University of Edinburgh), “Health Policy and Governance in Burundi” (£10,000), April-July 2018
Policy Reports
'MNEs, Local Capability Building, and Development: Chinese and European MNEs in Ghana' (2016) - with Fu, X., Essegbey, G., Frempong, G., Hou, J., and Akuffobea, M., University of Oxford, TMCD Working Paper TMD-WP-74
Media
'What can the UK learn from Italy's experience?’ On The iPaper (2 April 2020)
‘Latest on Coronavirus’ live interview on BBC World News TV (20 March 2020)
‘Italy’s fight against Covid-19 depends on continued solidarity’ in Open Democracy with L. Enria (20 March 2020)
‘Southern Italy braces for 'tsunami' of coronavirus cases’ interview in The Guardian (19 March 2020)
‘Why indigenous medicine could play a role in rebuilding health systems’ with J.-B. Falisse in The Conversation (19 June 2018)
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.