Esther Mwangi, a native of Kenya, joined IFPRI in July 2004 as a post-doctoral fellow with the CGIAR System-Wide program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi). CAPRi works to contribute to policies and practices that alleviate rural poverty by analyzing and disseminating knowledge on the ways that collective action and property rights institutions influence the efficiency, equity, and sustainability of natural resources use.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Esther worked as a consultant with the World Agroforestry Center's (ICRAF) Environmental Services Theme and with OXFAM's Regional Pastoralism program for East/Horn of Africa. She has also held a position as a Research Scientist with the Kenya Wildlife Service. Esther received a PhD in Public Policy from Indiana University. Her research has focused on institutions for natural resources management, property rights and institutional change.

• Harold Laswell Prize for the best dissertation in Public Policy, awarded by the American Political Science Association and Policy Studies Organization. 2005.

• The puzzle of 'perverse' property rights: Explaining property rights transitions in Kenya's Maasailand
  Forthcoming, September 2007. Mwangi, E. Development and Change 38(5) September, 2007.
• Socioeconomic Change and Land Use in Africa: The Transformation of Property Rights in Maasailand
  Forthcoming, August 2007. Mwangi, E. Palgrave MacMillan, New York.
• Subdividing the Commons: Distributional Conflict in the Transition from Collective to Individual Property Rights in Kenyas Maasailand
  2007. Mwangi, E. World Development 35(5):815-834.
  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.09.012
• The footprints of history: Property rights transformation in Kenya's Maasailand
  2006. Mwangi, E. Journal of Institutional Economics 2(2):157-180.