Inside Research, 19.05.2026

On Tuesday, we welcomed Prof. Jan Börner from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics and JProf. Claudia Noack from the Institute for Finance and Statistics to another successful „Inside Research“ event, which was jointly organized with the Student Council (Fachschaft VWL).

Prof. Jan Börner gave us an introduction to the field of bioeconomy and showed us how to apply economic methodology to an agricultural setting. He discussed deforestation and how both the demand and supply sides are to blame, as well as the effectiveness of policy instruments on both sides.

JProf. Claudia Noack gave an introduction to causal inference and explained how her main area of research, regression discontinuity (RD) designs, can detect the treatment effect. She showed three examples from her current work and explained how the simple RD model can be extended to produce more significant estimates (e.g., by using fuzzy RD designs or covariates).

The evening concluded with a get-together in the Faculty Lounge, which provided a relaxed setting for further conversation and networking.

We would like to thank Prof. Jan Börner and JProf. Claudia Noack for their enriching presentations and for taking the time to discuss them afterward.