Faculty ofResearch focus
The chair for economic and agricultural policy focuses its research on analysing agricultural and food policies. While continuing research on more traditional agricultural policy issues, newer projects cover environmental impacts of agriculture, rural development issues and trade in agricultural and food commodities. Policy impact analysis is an established research field, mainly based on economic simulation models but increasingly enriched and expanded by econometric analysis. Our research is embedded in the thematic concept of the faculty, specifically the areas of "Mathematical Modelling of Agricultural Systems", "Balanced Dairy Systems" and "Agricultural Systems: Ecosystem Services and Risks".
Over the last two decades, the chair developed different decision support systems for policy impact analysis such as the RAUMIS system with its focus on the German agricultural sector, nowadays applied and maintained by VTI in Braunschweig. Based on the experience with RAUMIS and the global agricultural trade model WATSIM which is not longer in use, the CAPRI modelling system was developed. CAPRI covers the EU27 at the regional level as well as global agricultural trade. Since 1997, the chair is continuously involved in the development and application of CAPRI, based on different projects with external funds. Since the year 2000 simulation models with a focus on natural resource use have been designed in the context of the IMPETUS project, dealing with impacts of climate change and demographic trends on water scarcity and agricultural land use in Africa. A wide range of finalised and ongoing projects focuses both on methodological issues relating to the empirical specification of economic models or on empirical analysis relevant for the thematic focus of the chair.
Cooperations
The chair links via various international projects to the German and European research area. A close co-operation with EUROCARE, a consulting specialising in quantitative policy impact analysis, supports access of graduate students and post docs to applied research projects, and helps transfering our scientific findings to stakeholders.
Last Updated:Tuesday, November 02, 2010
News
- Individual grant by DFG (German Science Foundation) "The relation between indicators for the crediting of emission rights and abatement costs -a systematic modelling approach for dairy farms" Principal investigators Karin Holm-Müller und Wolfgang Britz, Doktorand Bernd Lengers, 11/2011-11/2014
- OECD: “Evaluation of Agricultural Policy Reforms in the European Union”, Morredu, C. (ed.) with contributions by Martini, R., Kimura S., Britz, W., Gocht, A., Perez, I., Hart, K. and Baldock, D.
Recent publications
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TRQ-complications: who gets the benefits when the EU liberalizes Mercosur's access to the beef markets?
F. Junker and T. Heckelei(2012):
"TRQ-complications: who gets the benefits when the EU liberalizes Mercosur's access to the beef markets?", Agricultural Economics(in press) -
Modelling Regional Input Markets With Numerous Processing Plants: The Case Of Green Maize For Biogas Production In Germany
R. Delzeit, W. Britz and H. Holm-Müller(2011):
"Modelling Regional Input Markets With Numerous Processing Plants: The Case Of Green Maize For Biogas Production In Germany", Environmental Modelling & Software (in press) -
Estimating irrigation water demand in the Moroccan Drâa Valley using contingent valuation
Storm, H., T. Heckelei and C. Heidecke (2011):
"Estimating irrigation water demand in the Moroccan Drâa Valley using contingent valuation", Journal of Environmental Management 92(10), p. 2803-2809 -
Scale changes and model linking methods for integrated assessment of agri-environmental systems
Ewert, F., M. Van Ittersum, T. Heckelei, O. Therond, I. Bezlepkina and E. Andersen (2011):
"Scale changes and model linking methods for integrated assessment of agri-environmental systems", Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 142(1-2), p. 6-17 -
Farm, land, and soil nitrogen budgets for agriculture in Europe calculated with CAPRI
Leip, A., W. Britz, F. Weiss and W. de Vries
(2011):
"Farm, land, and soil nitrogen budgets for agriculture in Europe calculated with CAPRI", Environmental Pollution 159(11), p. 3243-3253 -
Foreign Direct Investment and the Performance of European Agribusiness Firms
L. Adenäuer and T. Heckelei (2011):
"Foreign Direct Investment and the Performance of European Agribusiness Firms", Journal of Agricultural Economics 62(3), p. 639-654