Global warming affects livelihoods asymmetrically, and the policies designed to address it often fail at the level of the incentives they create for farmers, through perverse incentive schemes, irreversible investment costs, and gaps in information and training. My research uses field experiments and behavioral economics, including a randomized controlled trial and lab-in-the-field experiments across three field studies in Ghana, to understand how people actually make decisions under these constraints, rather than how policy assumes they do. A central finding across this work: people are willing, often eager, to adopt sustainable practices, but a lack of functioning institutions and flawed incentive design repeatedly undermines that willingness.
I am in the final year of my PhD in the Bioeconomy Economics research group, working on the ReValueD project at the intersection of development and agricultural economics, with a focus on carbon farming, agroforestry, and the valorization of agricultural residues. My broader interest lies in how people make decisions when natural resources become scarce, and how institutions can be designed to correct the incentive failures I identify. I hold a Master's degree in International Economics and Business and Bachelor's degrees in International Cultural and Business Studies and Business Administration and Economics, all from the University of Passau.
