Research projects

Ongoing projects

Duration: October 2023 - September 2025

Collaborators: Heidelberg University

Funding institution: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Website: www.multitip.de

Summary: In this project, behavioral and environmental economists, cognitive and environmental psychologists, mathematical modelers, and fisheries experts join forces to investigate how economic, institutional, and cognitive drivers could conspire to cause the long-term irreversible collapse of the Lake Victoria Nile perch fishery, a backbone of local livelihoods. Working empirically and experimentally, conducting field interventions, and integrating the results through analytical and agent-based modelling, the partners together extend the knowledge base for a better understanding of the coupled socio-ecological system of the Nile perch fishery and for averting deleterious outcomes. The full-cycle, multi-methods approach and the insights so produced also inform future research into tipping points in heavily exploited socio-ecological systems. Phase 2, called MultiTip-ER, will use the successes of Phase 1 (MultiTip) to understand and improve measures that increase the system's resilience and thus improve its ability to avoid negative tipping points. In particular, the Kassel team will investigate the governance system at Lake Victoria by systematically investigating experimentally the perception and impact of institutional structures regulating fisheries at Lake Victoria.

Contact: Philipp Händel, Pia Pico

Duration: October 2022 - September 2025

Funding institution: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Summary: The aim of this research project is to investigate a factor that has received only little attention in economic research so far: forgiveness. To gain a more nuanced understanding of the role of forgiveness in human cooperation, the researchers will use new variants of the infinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma. Using experiments in the laboratory, it will be investigated whether subjects are willing to forgive in situations where their co-player actively cheated on them. Another focus will be on the strategic use of forgiveness when long-lasting reputations can be built up.

Contact: Marcel Lumkowsky

Completed projects

Duration: July 2019 - June 2023

Collaborators: Other chairs of the University of Kassel (Empirical Economic Research, Environmental Systems Analysis/Environmental Psychology; Foundations of Law, Private Law and Law and Economics)

Funding institution: University of Kassel

Summary: Environmentally friendly activities by individuals and groups make an important contribution to achieving environmental goals (such as the emission reduction targets set out in the Paris Climate Agreement). Voluntary contributions to environmental and especially climate protection are therefore the subject of research in environmental economics, psychology and sociology, often focusing on the influence of values and norms. Against this background, the project investigates to what extent the associated norm development and internalization processes can be changed and influenced over time to achieve a socially beneficial outcome.

Contact: Eva Weingärtner

Duration: June 2017 - May 2018 and April 2019 - August 2023

Collaborators: Heidelberg University

Funding institution: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Website: www.multitip.de

Summary: In this project, behavioral and environmental economists, cognitive and environmental psychologists, mathematical modelers, and fisheries experts join forces to investigate how economic, institutional, and cognitive drivers could conspire to cause the long-term irreversible collapse of the Lake Victoria Nile perch fishery, a backbone of local livelihoods. Working empirically and experimentally, conducting field interventions, and integrating the results through analytical and agent-based modelling, the partners together extend the knowledge base for a better understanding of the coupled socio-ecological system of the Nile perch fishery and for averting deleterious outcomes. The full-cycle, multi-methods approach and the insights so produced also inform future research into tipping points in heavily exploited socio-ecological systems.

Contact: Philipp Händel

More information about MultiTip:

Duration: September 2018 - February 2022

Collaborators: Heidelberg University, University of Mannheim, Centre for European Economic Research Mannheim (ZEW)

Funding institution: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Website: https://kooperationen.zew.de/en/compliance/home.html

Summary: Despite the critical importance of delivering on pledges in the context of international climate policy, this topic has been insufficiently studied. The COMPLIANCE project explores the monitoring, reporting, verification, and enforcement of international climate policies in three closely integrated work packages that combine methods from applied economic theory, econometrics, and experimental economics. Accompanied by a fourth work package for the communication of the results as well as a renowned scientific advisory board and a diverse group of practice partners, COMPLIANCE will lay important foundations for a verifiable and enforceable climate policy.

Contact: Marcel Lumkowsky

More information about COMPLIANCE:

Duration: August 2015  - January 2021

Collaborators: Columbia University, Princeton University, Stockholm Resilience Centre

Funding institution: ERC Starting Grant

Summary: The objectives of this research are to reveal the nature of large-scale human cooperation and to develop strategies for the protection of our global environment. Human activities are now the major driver of change in the biosphere, including the climate, the water cycle, and the distribution of species and biodiversity - with adverse effects that range from the local to the global scale. Since there is no world government that can enforce the protection of the global commons we have to rely on voluntary cooperation by sovereign actors. The methodological approach is genuinely interdisciplinary. In particular, the project uses and combines theoretical, experimental, evolutionary, and empirical methods to derive insights about human cooperation and develop effective strategies for the management of the global commons.

Contact: Astrid Dannenberg

More information about HUCO:

Duration: August 2014 - November 2015

Collaborators: Other units of the University of Kassel (Empirical Economic Research, Agricultural and Food Marketing, Traffic Planning and Traffic Systems, Solar and Systems Engineering, Public Law, Especially Environmental and Technology Law)

Funding institution: University of Kassel

Summary: Private consumption of goods and services is responsible for a large share of environmental impacts. The aim of this project is to empirically investigate the determinants (such as attitudes and motivations) of sustainable consumption behavior as well as possible interactions with the supply side in an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, economic, ecological and social effects of a shift towards more sustainable consumption will be elicited. The three consumption fields of energy consumption in the household, mobility behavior and food consumption will be examined in an interdependent, overarching approach. These consumption fields are responsible for two-thirds of consumer spending and at the same time have the greatest environmental impact, so that they are of greatest relevance from both an economic and a sustainability perspective.

Contact: Astrid Dannenberg