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Dr. Marieke Baaken
School of Business Administration and Economics
Environmental Economics
Barbarastr. 12
49076 Osnabrück
Raum 66/E24
Tel: +49 541 969 2424
Fax: +49 541 969 2599
marieke.baaken@uni-osnabrueck.de
During my work as a postdoctoral researcher at the IUSF, I investigate various dimensions and key drivers of the global transition towards an environmentally sustainable world. The main goal of my research is to contribute to more ecological and social sustainability by gaining a deeper understanding of political, economic and societal actors‘ decision-making and behaviors as well as by investigating, identifying and testing efficient and innovative (behavioral) policy instruments. In particular, my main research focuses on farmers‘ decision-making and behavioral economic insights for sustainable agriculture. I also explore and assess essential inner drivers and capacities leading to the inner growth of individuals which in turn i) influences individual cooperation in collective action dilemmas and ii) increases the ability to deal with an increasingly complex environment, societal challenges and stressors. Inner growth is an approach to promote resilience and to co-create a more desirable future.
I obtained my PhD in the interdisciplinary graduate school AGRI-TRANSFORM (Leverage Points for the Transformation to an Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in the department Environmental Politics and at the Philipps-University Marburg in the working group Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. I graduated in 2019 from Georg-August University (GAU) Göttingen with a M.A. in International Economics and from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen with a M.Sc. in International Economics and Business. Before, I received a Bachelor in Economics and Cultural Anthropology from the GAU.
Furthermore, I worked as an economic consultant within the KfW project „Identifying and testing of (behavioural) interventions to improve household connections to the central wastewater system“ and was a visiting fellow at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland.
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Memberships
- ISEE - The International Society for Ecological Economics / ESEE - European Society for Ecological Economics
- REECAP - Research network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy
- GEWISOLA - Society for Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture
- EAERE - European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
- EAAE - European Association of Agricultural Economists
Research Interests
- Behavioural & Experimental Economics
- Economics of Sustainability & Environmental Economics
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Sustainability Transformation
- Inner Development
Methods
- Qualitative content analysis
- Mixed methods
- Topic modelling
- Regression analysis
- Economic experiments
Publications (peer-reviewed)
Bartkowski, B.; Baaken, M. C.; Nagpal, M.; Sodoge, J.; & de Brito, M. M. (2025). What constitutes sustainable agriculture for different audiences in Germany? A comparative analysis of large-scale text data. People and Nature, 00, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70003
Baaken, M.C.; Kuhfuss, L.; Bougherara, D.; Czajkowski, M.; Rodriguez-Entrena, M.; Höhler, J.; Lagerkvist, C.-J.; Paparella, A.; Quendler, E.; Rommel, J.; Sagebiel, J.; Schulze, C.; Šumrada, T.; Tensi, A.F.; Thoyer, S.; Vecchio, R.; Zagórska, K. (2024). Multi-country perspectives on best practices and barriers to preference elicitation lab-in-the-field experiments with farmers, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13488
Baaken, M.C.; Vollan, B. (2024). "Identifying behavior change interventions with deep leverage: a conceptual and qualitative case study with farmers from Germany", Sustainability Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-024-01540-3
Möckel, S.; Baaken, M.C.; Bartkowski, B.; Beckmann, M; Strauch, M; Stubenrauch, J; Volk, M.; et al. (2024). "Zukunftsfähige Agrarlandschaften in Deutschland - praktische Maßnahmen und ihre Wirksamkeit im Vergleich", Natur und Recht 46, 13-24, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10357-023-4282-y
Baaken, M.C.; Bartkowski, B.; Rode, J. (2023). “Exploring farmers' support needs for the adoption of agri-environmental practices: An application of the Theoretical Domains Framework”, Environmental Research Communications, 5 (11), https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ad03b0
Rommel, J.; Sagebiel, J.; Baaken, M.C.; Barreiro-Hurlé, J.; Bougherara, D.; Cembalo, L.; Cerjak, M.; et al. (2022). “Farmers' Risk Preferences in 11 European Farming Systems: A Multi-Country Replication of Bocquého Et Al. (2014)”, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 45 (3), 1– 26, doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13330
Wittstock, F.; Paulus, A.; Beckmann, M.; Hagemann, N.; Baaken, M.C. (2022). "Understanding farmers' decision-making on agri-environmental schemes: A case study from Saxony, Germany", Land Use Policy, 122 (November), doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106371
Paulus, A.; Hagemann, N.; Baaken, M.C.; Roilo, S.; Segura, V.; Cord, A.F.; Beckmann, M. (2022). "Landscape context and farm characteristics are key to farmers' adoption of agri-environmental schemes", Land Use Policy, 121 (October), doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106320
Möckel, S.; Baaken, M.C.; Bartkowski, B.; Henn, E.V.; Strauch, M.; Stubenrauch, J. (2022). Zukunftsfähige Agrarlandschaften in Deutschland – Ziele und Anforderungen aus ökologischer, ökonomischer und rechtlicher Sicht“, Natur und Recht, 44, 611-621, doi.org/10.1007/s10357-022-4073-x
Baaken, M.C. (2022). Sustainability of agricultural practices in Germany: a literature review along multiple environmental domains, in: Regional Environmental Change, 22 (39), doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01892-5
Publications (Other)
Möckel, S.; Baaken, M. C.; Bartkowski, B.; Beckmann, M.; Henn, E. V.; Strauch, M.; Stubenrauch, J. (2024). "Sustainable Cultivated Landscapes in Germany: Goals and Requirements from an Ecological, Economic and Legal Perspective", UFZ Discussion Papers 1/2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13766728
Möckel, S.; Baaken, M. C.; Bartkowski, B.; Beckmann, M.; Strauch, M.; Stubenrauch, J.; Volk, M.; Witing, F.; Wolf, A. (2024). "Sustainable Cultivated Landscapes in Germany: Comparison of 27 Practical Measures for more Sustainability and their Effectiveness" UFZ Discussion Papers 2/2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13766763
Rossano-Rivero, S.; Baaken, T.; Orazbayeva, B.; Baaken, M.C.; Kiel, B.; Maas, G. (2019). Social Entrepreneurship and its competences, in: Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and E-Services, IGI Global. 10.4018/978-1-5225-8939-6.ch006
Baaken, T.; Kiel, B.; Rossano-Rivero, S.; Baaken, M.C.; Mass, G. (2016). Competencies in Entrepreneurship: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Higher Education from a New Angle, in: Handbook of Research in Social Entrepreneurship and Solidarity Economics, IGI Global. 10.4018/978-1-5225-0097-1.ch009
Conference Papers/ Presentations
Baaken, M.C. (2025). Leveraging Behavioral Insights for a More Sustainable Agriculture, Keynote presentation at the 2nd International Conference BeSafeBeeHoney – BeeForward: Exploring Beekeeping Innovations and Science, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Baaken, M.C.; Kuhfuss, L.; Bougherara, D.; Czajkowski, M.; Rodriguez-Entrena, M.; Höhler, J.; Lagerkvist, C.-J.; Paparella, A.; Quendler, E.; Rommel, J.; Sagebiel, J.; Schulze, C.; Šumrada, T.; Tensi, A.F.; Thoyer, S.; Vecchio, R.; Zagórska, K. (2024). Multi-country perspectives on best practices and barriers to lab-in-the-field experiments with farmers, Presentation at REECAP 2024, 6th Annual Congress of the Research network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy, Córdoba, Spain.
Bartkowski, B.; Baaken, M.C.; Nagpal, M.; Sodoge, J.; Madruga de Brito, M. (2024). Sustainable agriculture discourses in Germany: a comparative analysis of large-scale text data, Presentation at EAERE 2024, 29th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Leuven, Belgium.
Bartkowski, B.; Nagpal, M.; Baaken, M.C.; Chan, K.; Schneider, N.; Sodoge, J.; Madruga de Brito, M. (2023). Sustainable agriculture discourses in Germany: a comparative analysis of large-scale text data, Presentation at EGU23, European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria.
Baaken, M.C.; Vollan, B. (2023). A farmers´perspective on transformational needs: A qualitative study combining insights from the Behavior Change Wheel and the leverage points framework, Presentation at REECAP 2023, 5th Annual Congress of the Research network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy, Warsaw, Poland.
Sormani, E.; Baaken, M.C.; Baaken, T.; Okamoto, S. (2018). The Potential of Nudging for the Engaged University, Conference Paper UIIN University-Industry-Interaction Conference, London, UK.
Current research projects
Inner Growth for Sustainability Transformation
A major reason for missing most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is that we have not developed the inner capacity to deal with our increasingly complex environment, societal challenges and stressors. “Inner Growth for Sustainability Transformation” addresses factors that create the cognitive plasticity in human actors that is required for (societal) sustainability transformation.
Specifically, we investigate the role of methods of visioning and future thinking for environmentally friendly behavior, develop quantifiable, measurable indicators of cognitive plasticity and test practicable interventions that promote environmentally friendly thinking and decision-making as well as the resulting behavior.
