Development Economics Group
The mission of the Development Economics Group (DEC) is to contribute to an improved understanding of the processes of sustainable development, institutions, conflict and poverty alleviation. To this end, DEC selects teaching material and focuses on research that can shed light on the dynamics of factor productivity and resource use in developing countries.
Chair holder
Featured
First International Conference on Global Food Security
Achieving global food security whilst reconciling demands on the environment is the greatest challenge faced by mankind. By 2050 we will feed 9 billion people, two thirds of whom will live in cities. This scientific conference addresses food security at different spatial and temporal scales – from local to global, from immediate to long-term.
Read moreAgenda
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Lei Zhang: Water, food and markets
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Water is increasingly becoming a limiting factor for sustainable economic growth and development, particularly in developing countries. Besides...
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First International Conference on Global Food Security
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Achieving global food security whilst reconciling demands on the environment is the greatest challenge faced by mankind. By 2050 we will feed 9...
Our Research
The research of the Development Economics Group focuses on the nature of institutions, drivers of institutional change, and implications of institutional change for poverty alleviation and sustainable economic development. The institutional framework encompasses both formal and informal “rules of the game” and ranges from volatile governance measures to more inert cultural variables (including gender roles). This institutional focus is applied to fields such as the organisation of commodity chains, natural resource management (e.g. land and water management and renewable energy use by farm households), origins and consequences of violent conflicts, and arrangements on risk sharing.
Latest publications
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Energy consumption practices of rural households in north China: Basic characteristics and potential for low carbon development
Energy Policy 55 (2013). - ISSN 0301-4215 - p. 128 - 138.
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The measurement of human capital: a multivariate macro-approach
Quantity and Quality 47 (2013)1. - ISSN 0033-5177 - p. 121 - 136.
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Do political budget cycles really exist?
Applied Economics 45 (2013)3. - ISSN 0003-6846 - p. 329 - 341.