Dr Jeff Tan is Professor of Political Economy. He received his PhD in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and w​​orks on international development, looking at the roles of government, private sector and communities. He is especially interested in privatisation and public-private partnerships in the delivery of urban infrastructure and essential services, especially water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). His publications on water services and infrastructure, industrialisation, entrepreneurship, rent seeking, and corruption have appeared in economics, management, sociology, area studies, geography, and engineering journals. ​

​​​​​Current research​​​​

• ​​​​Harnessing Heritage: Reducing Heat and Carbon Emissions Through the Use of Traditional Building Techniques and Materials in a World Heritage Site in Malaysia. British Academy ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grant 2024: Culture, Heritage and Climate Action 
  

• Scaling Up and Transferring Community-Managed Rural Water Systems to Urban Settings. British Academy Urban Infrastructures of Well-Being 
  

• Strengthening Water Governance and Management in Gilgit-Baltistan 
  

• What is Islamisation? Patterns of State Transformation in the Global South 
  

​​​​​​Selected publications​​​​​

• Tan, J., Lyon, S.M. and Shah, A. (editors) (2025) Sustaining and Scaling Up Community Managed Water: WASEP in Pakistan, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.
• Birkinshaw, M., Grieser, A. and Tan, J. (2021) 'How Does Community-Managed Infrastructure Scale Up from Rural to Urban? An Example of Co-Production in Community Water Projects in Northern Pakistan', Environment and Urbanization, 33 (2): 496–518.
• Tan, J. (2020) 'Cycles of Accumulation: A Political Settlements Analysis of the Growth-Redistribution Trade Off in Malaysia', Journal of Contemporary Asia, 51: 303–329.
• Tan, J. (2018) 'Rents, Accumulation and Conflict in Malaysia', Southeast Asian Studies, 7 (3): 309–339.
• Tan, J. (2015) 'Water Privatization, Ethnicity and Rent-Seeking: Preliminary Evidence from Malaysia', Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 32 (3): 297–318.
• Tan, J. (2014) 'Running out of Steam? Manufacturing in Malaysia', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 38 (1): 153–180.
• Tan, J. (2013) 'Culture or Class? Why Islam is Neither the Question nor the Answer', Sociology of Islam, 1 (1–2): 64–87.
• Tan, J. (2012) 'The Pitfalls of Water Privatization: Failure and Reform in Malaysia', World Development, 40 (12): 2522–2563.

​​​​​​Personal links​

https://aku.academia.edu/JeffTan​