Research Groups
Our twelve research groups cover key dimensions of the agri-food system from production to consumption as well as a broad spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research methods, such as econometrics, modelling, and content analysis.
Agricultural and Food Market Research
Prof. Dr. Monika Hartmann
We analyse the behavior of consumers and other stakeholders in the agri-food value chains in order to gain knowledge about how the transformation process of achieving the necessary sustainability goals can be promoted.
Digital Transformation and Circular Economy
Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel Hermann
We investigate questions on digitalization and sustainability, as well as the intersection of these two, applying quantitative approaches.
Data Science in Agricultural Economics
Dr. Hugo Storm
The research of our group focuses on developing and applying novel data science tools in the area of agricultural and environmental economics.
Economic and Agricultural Policy
Prof. Dr. Thomas Heckelei
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.
Economic Modeling of Agricultural Systems
PD Dr. Wolfgang Britz
Our research focuses on the quantitative analysis of questions related to sustainability and provision of eco-systems services by agri-food systems from farm to global scale.
Economics of Sustainable Land Use and Bioeconomy
Prof. Dr. Jan Börner
Our research group assess and evaluates the impacts of environmental policy instruments, natural resource governance, and bioeconomic transformation on land use, ecosystem services, and rural development.
Innovation and Management in Agribusiness
Dr. Christian Baccarella (interim)
The research activities of the chair of Innovation and Management in Agribusiness center around different topics in innovation management. Our aim is to understand and improve innovation endeavors of various actors in the context of agribusiness. Focal topics range from the creation of new business models to analyzing innovation ecosystems.
Land Economics
Prof. Dr. David Wüpper
The main objective of the Land Economics group is to provide evidence-based policy recommendations for the management of the natural resource land. We use and produce global data on land conditions and dynamics, identify the causal effects of public policies, analyze which cultural, institutional, and market factors interact with them, and evaluate the potential of technological solutions.
Socioeconomics of Sustainable Nutrition
Prof. Dr. Dominic Lemken
The research group Socioeconomics of Sustainable Nutrition analyses sustainable consumer behaviour focusing on food choice environments and nutrition policy.
Production Economics
Prof. Dr. Niklas Möhring
The Production Economics Group strives to identify pathways towards more sustainable and resilient agricultural and food production systems – and to quantify the potential impacts and trade-offs of such transformations. In our research, we combine cutting-edge quantitative methods for the analysis of human behavior and decision-making with a profound understanding of the economic, agronomic and ecological processes in agri-food systems. We work for and with farmers, food-value-chain actors, policymakers and other societal actors to support their decision-making with evidence-based information. We work together with researchers from different disciplines and countries.
External research groups
Global Change and Systemic Risks
Prof. Dr. Jakob Rhyner
“Global change” embraces a range of change processes such as changes in climate, natural resources, the global economy, technology, as well as changes in societal structures and values. We go beyond sectoral perspectives of risk management and embrace systemic approaches in order to investigate global change and its trade-offs.
Economic and Technological Change
Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim
We do socioeconomic research on food security and sustainable food systems, including analyses of technical and institutional innovations in agriculture, supply chains, food environments, and issues around healthy and sustainable diets and nutrition. Much of our work focuses on countries in the Global South.