Climate Change and Development

The Professorship for Climate Change and Development conducts research in applied development economics within the context of climate change. Our aim is to generate new knowledge on how the lives of individuals in the Global South are affected by climate change and how to best design policies that increase the climate resilience of households.

In our research, we investigate these questions from an applied microeconomic perspective using econometric methods. Our focus is on different dimensions of human well-being, such as income, assets, land ownership, nutrition, education, and health.

We also focus on evaluating climate adaptation policies. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental methods that allow the identification of causal effects are applied. Weather insurance for smallholder farm households and humanitarian aid delivered in the context of extreme weather events are the focus of our research.

Our research is mainly based on new, carefully designed household panel surveys that we collect in cooperation with local partners. Recently completed, ongoing, and soon-to-start data collections are taking place in Mongolia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Senegal, Ghana, and Vietnam.

The Professorship for Climate Change and Development is part of the Economic Policy Lab "Climate Change, Development and Migration" at the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research.