Ellen Hillbom is a professor of economic history at Lund University, focusing on long-term African development. Her research includes both past and present issues, and she has published on topics such as structural transformation, long-term inequality, inclusive agricultural development, natural resource dependency, property rights institutions, and colonial legacies. 

Currently, she leads a research project estimating levels and trends of colonial income inequality, aiming to understand drivers and dimensions of long-term inequality. In other projects, her research focus is on contemporary sustainable development. First, on transformative change in Small Island Developing States, including the use of ocean resources and, second, on fossil fuel-dependent developing countries facing the green energy transition.