Prof. Dr. Arndt Feuerbacher

Full Professor (W3, tenured)
Head of the Department of Ecological-Economic Policy Modelling (420d)
Institute of Agricultural Policy and Agricultural Markets, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Hohenheim
Principal Investigator, BMBF junior research group BEATLE

Research profile

My group develops and applies large-scale quantitative simulation models to understand how ecological change and policy interventions propagate through agri-food systems. We build economy-wide (computable general equilibrium), global partial-equilibrium and farm-level models, and couple them with ecological, agronomic and spatial data to represent ecosystem services, biodiversity loss, land use and technological change explicitly. These tools are being integrated into HOPE, the Hohenheim Model Framework for Ecological-Economic Policy Evaluation.

Current research areas:

(i) Pollinator decline: Impacts on the economy, trade and food systems – from regional seed production to global agricultural markets.

(ii) Biodiversity-friendly land use: Pathways for agricultural and food policy transformation in Europe.

(iii) Multiple land use: Systems such as agrivoltaics that combine agricultural production and energy generation.

(iv) Resource and agricultural policy: Research in small economies, with a long-standing focus on Bhutan.

Our results inform policy institutions, including analyses for the World Bank.

Research group and funding

I lead a research group of 12 team members, including doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. As Principal Investigator, I direct the BMBF-funded social-ecological junior research group BEATLE ("Evaluating agricultural and food policies leading to transformation pathways towards a biodiversity-friendly land-use and food system"; €2.7 million, 07/2022–09/2027; www.projekt-beatle.de). The group develops integrated modelling tools for biodiversity and agri-food policy analysis, and I supervise doctoral theses in agricultural, environmental and resource economics.

Methods and computational tools

Economy-wide modelling (computable general equilibrium and social accounting matrices); EU agricultural sector modelling (CAPRI); global agricultural market models; bio-economic farm-level and technology-adoption models; uncertainty analysis in large-scale simulation models; spatial analysis.

Selected publications

Feuerbacher, A., Kempen, M., Steidle, J. L. M., & Wieck, C. (2025). The economic, agricultural, and food security repercussions of a wild pollinator collapse in Europe. Nature Communications, 16, 9892. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65414-7
Feuerbacher, A. (2025). Pollinator declines, international trade and global food security: Reassessing the global economic and nutritional impacts. Ecological Economics, 232.
Feuerbacher, A., Herbold, T., & Krumbe, F. (2024). The economic value of pollination services for seed production: A blind spot deserving attention. Environmental and Resource Economics, 87, 881–905. doi:10.1007/s10640-024-00840-7
Feuerbacher, A., & Luckmann, J. (2023). Labour-saving technologies in smallholder agriculture: An economy-wide model with field operations. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 67(1). doi:10.1111/1467-8489.12502
Feuerbacher, A., Herrmann, T., Neuenfeldt, S., Laub, M., & Gocht, A. (2022). Estimating the economics and adoption potential of agrivoltaics in Germany using a farm-level bottom-up approach. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 168. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2022.112784
Feuerbacher, A., Lippert, C., Kuenzang, J., & Subedi, K. (2021). Low-cost electric fencing for peaceful coexistence: An analysis of human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies in smallholder agriculture. Biological Conservation, 255. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108919
Stepanyan, D., Grethe, H., …, Feuerbacher, A., … & Havlik, P. (2021). Multiple rotations of Gaussian Quadratures: An efficient method for uncertainty analyses in large-scale simulation models. Environmental Modelling & Software, 136. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104929
Feuerbacher, A., McDonald, S., Dukpa, C., & Grethe, H. (2020). Seasonal rural labor markets and their relevance to policy analyses in developing countries. Food Policy, 93. doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101875

Full publication list: ORCID ● Google Scholar ● Scopus ● ResearchGate

The department’s publication list is available here.

Academic career

Since 01/2025	Full Professor (W3, tenured), Head of the Department of Ecological-Economic Policy Modelling, University of Hohenheim
09/2022 – 12/2024	JJunior Professor (W1), Head of the Ecological-Economic Policy Modelling group, University of Hohenheim; Principal Investigator of BEATLE. Declined the offer of the W3 Professorship "Global Trade and Food Security", Justus Liebig University Giessen
07/2018 – 08/2022	Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer, Chair of Agricultural and Food Policy (Prof. Dr. Christine Wieck), University of Hohenheim
04/2016 – 03/2018	Research associate, Chair of International Agricultural Trade and Development (Prof. Dr. Harald Grethe), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
10/2014 – 04/2016	Research associate, Chair of Agricultural and Food Policy (Prof. Dr. Harald Grethe), University of Hohenheim

Education

2019	Promotion in Agrarökonomie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, summa cum laude. Dissertation: „Economy-wide modelling of seasonal labour and natural resource policies“ (doi:10.18452/19825)
2014	M.Sc. Agrarökonomie, Universität Hohenheim
2010	MBA in Finance, Portland State University (USA); Diplom-Betriebswirt (FH), International Business, ESB Business School, Hochschule Reutlingen

Awards and fellowships

2022	Best Paper Award, 62nd Annual Conference of the German Society of Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture (GEWISOLA)
2020	Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Economic Research, Joachim Herz Foundation
2020	European Science Award for an outstanding dissertation, fiat panis Foundation
2012 – 2013	Carlo Schmid Programme fellow (DAAD and German National Academic Foundation)

Policy advisory work

Short-term consultant to the World Bank Group (2012–2022): recursive-dynamic CGE modelling for the Bhutan Country Economic Memorandum (2024) and the Bhutan Country Environmental Analysis (2024); hydropower investment scenarios for Kyrgyzstan; natural-resource policy analysis with spatial forest assessment; cost of air pollution in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Service to the scientific community

Member, Senate Research Committee, University of Hohenheim
Guest Editor, Organic Agriculture (since 2024)
Reviewer for academic journals including European Review of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, Ecological Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Nature Communications, Conservation Letters, Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, Agricultural Systems, Land Use Policy, Economic Systems Research, German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production and Environment, Development and Sustainability
Reviewer of grant proposals for the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Hessian Ministry of Science, the Joachim Herz Foundation and the Velux Foundation
Supervision of early-career researchers: 2 postdocs (1 ongoing, 1 completed); 7 doctoral researchers as main supervisor and 2 as co-supervisor; 2 completed thesis advisory committees; more than 24 completed Master's theses as main supervisor

Memberships

International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) ● European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) ● German Society of Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture (GEWISOLA) ● Council for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF) ● Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Network