A country’s wealth of renewable and non-renewable resources is a weak indicator for its economic, social and political fate. The centre deals with resource use and distribution from a macro and micro perspective. One focal area of our research addresses the ambiguous effects of resource abundance and scarcity (e.g. fossil fuels or water). Another one investigates the impact of diverse factors, such as climate and technology changes, on the production and pricing of food.

The following projects exemplarily show the spectrum of topics covered by this research area:

• The Impact of Natural Resource Abundance on Institutional Transition and Economic Growth: Evidence from Natural Resource Based Post Soviet Economies (PhD Elkhan Sadik-Zada)

• Local People's Willingness to Pay for the Avoidance of Deforestation and Forest Degradation (PhD Akhmad Solikin)

• Economic Valuation of Natural Resources, Estimating Reallocation Cost of Water Resources (PhD-Project Farah Asna Ashari)

• Critical Reassessment of the Dynamics between the Extractive Industry and Sustainable Development: The Case of Mali (PhD-Project Sidy Ouattara)

• A Real Options Approach to Renewable and Nuclear Energy Investments in the Philippines (PhD-Project Casper Agaton)

Assessing the Impacts of Improved Wastewater Irrigation and Optimized Soil Fertility on Income, Expenditure, and Food Security of Urban and Peri-urban Farm Households in West Africa

• BMBF-funded research project Urban Food Plus, sub-project economics

• Team:
  • Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein (Principal Investigator)
  • Dr. Martina Shakya (Post-doctoral Fellow)
  • Marc Hansen (Research Fellow/PhD Candidate)
  • Lesley Hope (PhD Candidate)
  • At the RUB, the Geography Department (Prof. Dr. Bernd Marschner, Soil Productivity, SP 4, International Graduate School) and the Faculty of Engineering (Prof. Dr. Marc Wichern, Wastewater Engineering, SP 5) are also contributing to the Urban Food Plus project.

• further information on the IEE website: here