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I am an environmental economist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. My research focus is on the economic analysis of trade-offs in the management of multifunctional landscapes and policy options for navigating these trade-offs. In this context, I am interested in multiple aspects, including societal preferences for biodiversity, ecosystem services, the opportunity costs of their provision, the design on policy instruments and instrument mixes, and the behavioural responses of land users to these, leading to landscape-level provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services (for more, see Research).

Currently, I lead, jointly with Andrea Kaim, the junior research group AgriScape (Trade-offs along paths towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes), funded within the Social–Ecological Research (Sozial–Ökologische Forschung, SÖF) programme of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (2022–2027).

I did my PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) in environmental economics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 2013–2017. My topic was the economic valuation of biodiversity, with a special focus on deliberative monetary valuation. Between the topic of my PhD and my current focus, I have rather diverse research interests (check out my publication list and the Research tab for more information and detail). Since 2019, I have been the coordinator of the thematic graduate school AGRI-TRANSFORM at the UFZ. From 2017 until 2022, I was teaching a course on conservation economics (Naturschutzökonomik) within the bachelor’s programme Nature conservation and landscape planning (Naturschutz und Landschaftsplanung) at the Hochschule Anhalt in Bernburg.

I use the blog (formerly known as Skeptische Ökonomie), which is integrated in this website, as a tool for formulation and discussion of new ideas, as well as for science communication (both of own work and the work of others).

My extraprofessional interests include (South-)Eastern Europe (a legacy of my Bachelor’s studies), drinking tea, listening to avant-garde jazz, reading (philosophy, history, science fiction and fantasy), watching films and contributing to Wikipedia.

My CV.