Date of birth
April, 8th, 1976

Place of birth
Dessau, Germany

Undergraduate studies

  • 1995-1999: Technical University Berlin, Landscape Planning
  • 1999-2001: Wageningen University, The Netherlands (Master of Environmental Science)



Current position
Since 2005: Doctoral student (external) at Georg-August-University Göttingen.

Visiting scientist

  • 2004: Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan
  • 2001: United Nations Institute for Technical Training and Research (UNITAR), Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2000-2001: Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Müncheberg, Institute of Land Use Systems and Landscape Ecology



Research interests

  • Rural development policy
  • Policy analysis and evaluation
  • Structural change
  • Agri-environment



Research project

  • Impact of farm programmes on farm structure (doctoral thesis)
    The study focuses on the relationship between farm programmes and the structural development of farm enterprises in Germany. Farm programmes analysed are those in the Less Favoured Areas scheme and Agri-environment Programmes. Both schemes are core instruments of the rural development policy in the European Union. The objective of the study is to analyse the influence of these farm programmes on factor input (utilised agricultural area, grassland, capital, livestock, pesticides, fertilizer) and production (farm sales). The analysis is based upon bookkeeping data of the private company “Land-Data”(2000-2005), which includes approximately 20.000 farms in Germany over the course of 6 years. The empirical analysis is based upon parametric (e. g., panel data analysis) and non-parametric methods (propensity score matching). For results see publications below.

  • Evaluation of Rural Development Plans (vTI)
    The evaluation of Rural Development Plans of the states Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein has been a task of the vTI Institute of Rural Studies and affiliated partners since 2001 (2003: mid-term, 2005: up-date of mid-term, 2009: ex-post). The objective of the ongoing ex-post evaluation is to analyse the effects and the efficiency of public payments spent for rural development activities. Supported activities include, among others, the farm investment aid scheme, compensatory allowances in less favoured areas, agri-environment schemes, rural infrastructure construction and village renewal. My personal field of work included/s the evaluation of agri-environment programmes (Chapter 6) and the evaluation of the entire programme with respect to selected core objectives (e. g. employment and income effects of rural development measures) (Chapter 10).



Publications



Work experience

  • Since 2001: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute (vTI), Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Institute of Rural Studies, Braunschweig
  • 1998–1999: Research Assistance at the Technical University Berlin, Institute for Landscape Development



Languages

  • Deutsch
  • Englisch