Economic Modeling of Agricultural Systems

PD Dr. Wolfgang Britz

The focus of our work is on the development and application of economic simulation models from farm to global scale to analyze quantitative questions in the agri-food system related to sustainability and provision of eco-systems services.

Research

Recent research examples relate to optimal farm management and investment strategies in a changing market and policy environment considering risk, regional scale analysis of structural change and nutrient exchanges between farms in Agent-Based Models and long-term projections of the global food system.

Teaching

We offer courses at master level on the state-of-the-art of quantitative economic modeling of agri-food systems, allowing for hands-on experience with economic models developed and applied by us. After the successful participation in the courses offered by the Economic Modeling Goup, students can be granted the minor specialization "Economic modeling".

  • Bio-Economic Modeling at Farm-Scale
  • Partial and General Equilibrium Modeling
  • Applied Modeling of Agricultural Systems

We additonally offer  a one-week block course on advanced GAMS modeling in autumn as part of the "Doctoral Certificate Progam in Agricultural Economics" jointly managed by German speaking universities with an agricultural economics programs. That course will also be open for our master students.

Staff

Our team encompasses doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. We are located in Nussallee 19, ground floor.

Avatar von Spreckelsen

Franziska von Spreckelsen


External PhDs

Alumni

  • Salwa Haddad
  • Claudia Seidel
  • Dr. Till Kuhn
  • Dr. Christoph Pahmeyer
  • Dr. David Schäfer
  • Dr. Julia Freytag
  • Dr. Lennart Kokemohr

Publications

Britz, W. (2025): How to solve large recursive-dynamic Computable General Equilibrium models. Discussion Paper 2025:1, Bonn, link

Mittenzwei, K., Britz, W., Burton, R. J.F. (2024): The potential impact of cultivated protein on agriculture in Norway. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Volume 55, 2025, 100960, link

Pradhan, P., Weitz, N., Daioglou, V., [..] Wilts, R., et al. (2024): Three foci at the science-policy interface for systemic Sustainable Development Goal acceleration. Nature Communications, Volume 15, Article number: 8600, link

Wilts, R., Britz, W. (2024): Distribution matters: Long-term quantification of the Sustainable Development Goals with household detail for different socio-economic pathways. Global Transitions, Volume 6, 2024, Pages 173-186, link

Haddad, S., Escobar, N., Bruckner, M., Britz, W. (2024): Subsidizing extensive cattle production in the European Union has major implications for global agricultural trade and climate change. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141074, link

Miranda, J., Britz, W., Börner, J. (2024): Impacts of commodity prices and governance on the expansion of tropical agricultural frontiers. Scientific Reports, 14:9209, link

Arata, L., Chakrabarti, A., Paymeyer, C., Schokai, P (2023): Can public policies tackle the phosphorus paradox in pig farming? The case of Po-valley and Lower Saxony. Journal of Cleaner Production, 137835, link

Freytag, J., Britz, W., Kuhn, T. (2023): The economic potential of organic production for stockless arable farms importing biogas digestate: A case study analysis for western Germany, Agricultural Systems 209: 103682, link

Huber, R., Tarruella, M., Schäfer, D., & Finger, R. (2023): Marginal climate change abatement costs in Swiss dairy production considering farm heterogeneity and interaction effects. Agricultural Systems, 207, 103639, link

Shang, L., Pahmeyer, C., Heckelei, T., Rasch, S., Storm, H. (2023): How much can farmers pay for weeding robots? A Monte Carlo simulation study, Precision Agriculture, link

Shang, L., Wang, J., Schäfer, D., Heckelei, T., Gall, J., Appel, F., & Storm, H. (2023): Surrogate modelling of a detailed farm‐level model using deep learning. Journal of Agricultural Economics, link

Mertens, A., Kokemohr, L., Braun, E., Legein, L., Mosnier, C., Pirlo, G., Veysset, P., Hennart, S., Mathot, M., Stilmant, D. (2023): Exploring Rotational Grazing and Corssbreeding as Options for Beef Production to Reduce GHC Emissions and Feed-Food Competition through Farm-Level Bio-Economic Modeling. Animals, 1020, link

Arata, L., Chakrabarti, A., Ekane, N., Foged, H. L., Pahmeyer, C., Rosemarin, A., & Sckokai, P. (2022). Assessment of environmental and farm business impacts of phosphorus policies in two European regions. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6(852887), 1-14. link

Britz, W., Jafari, Y., Nekhay, O., Roson, R. (2022): Assessing inequality and poverty in long-term projections of economic growth: A general equilibrium analysis for six developing countries, Economic Modelling: 10606. link

Britz, W. (2022): Implementing an Approximation of Cumulative Prospect Theory into Mixed Linear Programming – an Application to Bio-Economic Modelling at Farm-Scale Considering Crop Insurance, German Journal of Agricultural Economics 71(4). link.

Britz, W. (2022): Disaggregating Agro-Food Sectors in the GTAP Data Base, Journal for Global Economic Analysis 7(1): 44-75. link

Kokemohr, L., Escobar, N., Mertens, A., Mosnier, C., Pirlo, G., Veysset, P., & Kuhn, T. (2022). Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of European beef production systems based on a farm-level optimization model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 379, 134552, link

Kuhn, T., Möhring, N., Töpel, A., Jakob, F., Britz, W., Bröring, S., Pich, A., Schwaneberg, U., Rennings, M. (2022): Using a bio-economic farm model to evaluate the economic potential and pesticide load reduction of the greenRelease technology, Agricultural Systems 201: 103454. link

Britz, W. (2021): Automated Calibration of Farm-Sale Mixed Linear Programming Models using Bi-Level Programming, German Journal of Agricultural Economics 70(3): 165-181. link

Britz, W. (2021): Estimating a global MAIDADS demand system considering demography, climate and norms, Bio-based and Applied Economics 10(3): 219-238. link

Britz, W. (2021): Comparing Penalty Functions in Balancing and Dis-aggregating Social Accounting Matrices, Journal of Global Economic Analysis 6(1): 34-81. link

Britz, W., Ciaian, P., Gocht, A., Kanellopoulos, A., Kremmydas, D., Müller, M., Petsakos, A., Reidsma, P. (2021): A design for a generic and modular bio-economic farm model, Agricultural Systems 191(June 2021): 103133. link

Escobar, N., Britz, W. (2021): Metrics on the sustainability of region-specific bioplastics production, considering global land use change effects, Resources, Conservation and Recycling 167(April 2021): 105345. link

Heinrichs, J., Jouan, J., Pahmeyer, C., Britz, W. (2021): Integrated assessment of legume production challenged by European policy interaction: A case-study approach from French and German dairy farms, QOpen 1(1): 1-19. link

Heinrichs, J., Kuhn, T., Pahmeyer, C., Britz, W. (2021): Economic effects of plot sizes and farm-plot distances in organic and conventional farming systems: A farm-level analysis for Germany, Agricultural Systems 187: 1029922020. link

Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Guimbard, H., Beckman, J. (2021): Properly capturing tariff rate quotas for trade policy analysis in computable general equilibrium models, Economic Modelling 104(105620). link

Jafari, Y., Himics, M., Britz, W., Beckman, J. (2021): It is all in the details: A bilateral approach for modelling trade agreements at the tariff line, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 69(3): 415-442. link

Kuhn, A., Britz, W. (2021): Long-Term Scenarios for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Agro-Food Markets with varying Population, Income and Crop Productivity Trends, Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 46(1): 20-36. link.

Mosnier, C., Jarousse, A., Madrange, P., Balouzat, J., Guillier, M., Pirlo, G., Mertens, A., ORiordan, E., Pahmeyer, C., Hennart, S., Legein, L., Crosson, P., Kearney, M., Dimon, P., Bertozzi, C., Reding, E., Iacurto, M., Breen, J., Carè, S., Veysset, P. (2021): Evaluation of the contribution of 16 European beef production systems to food security, Agricultural Systems 190(May 2021): 103088. link

Pahmeyer, C., Kuhn, T., Britz, W. (2021): ‘Fruchtfolge’: A crop rotation decision support system for optimizing cropping choices with big data and spatially explicit modeling, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 181: 105948. link

Pahmeyer, C., Schäfer, D., Kuhn, T., Britz, W. (2021): Data on a synthetic farm population of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Data in Brief 36(June 2021): 107007. link

Roson, R., Britz, W. (2021): Simulating long run structural change with a dynamic general equilibrium model, Int. J. Computational Economics and Econometrics 11(4): 368-404. link

Spiegel, A., Britz, W., Finger, R. (2021): Risk, Risk Aversion, and Agricultural Technology Adoption – A Novel Valuation Method Based on Real Options and Inverse Stochastic Dominance, Q Open 1(2): 1-26. link

Wilts, R., Latka, C., Britz, W. (2021): Who is Most Vulnerable to Climate Change Induced Yield Changes? A Dynamic Long Run Household Analysis in Lower Income Countries, Climate Risk Management 33(100330). link.

Böcker, T., Möhring, N., Finger, R., Britz, W. (2020): An economic and environmental assessment of a glyphosate ban for the example of maize production, European Review of Agricultural Economics 47(2): 371–402.

Delzeit, R., Beach, R., Britz, W., Chateau, J., Freund, F., Lefevre, J., Schuenemann, F., Sulser, T., van Ruijven, B., Weitzel, M., Willenbockel, D., Wojtowicz, K. (2020): Linking Global CGE Models with Sectoral Models to Generate Baseline Scenarios: Approaches, Challenges, and Opportunities, Journal of Global Economic Analysis 5(1): 162-195.

Ho, M., Britz, W., Delzeit, R., Leblanc, F., Roson, R., Schuenemann, F., Weitzel, M. (2020): Modelling Consumption and Constructing Long-Term Baselines in Final Demand, Journal of Global Economic Analysis 5(1): 63-80.

Jafari, Y., Britz, W. (2020): Brexit: an economy-wide impact assessment on trade, immigration, and foreign direct investment, Empirica 47(1): 17-52.

Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Dudu, H., Roson, R., Sartori, M. (2020): Can Food Waste Reduction in Europe Help to Increase Food Availability and Reduce Pressure on Natural Resources Globally?, German Journal of Agricultural Economics 69(2): 143-168.

Kuhn, T., Enders, A., Gaiser, T., Schäfer, D., Srivastava, A., Britz, W. (2020): Coupling crop and bio-economic farm modelling to evaluate the revised fertilization regulations in Germany, Agricultural Systems 127(May 2020): 104656.

Nong, D., Escobar, N., Britz, W., Börner, J. (2020): Long-term impacts of bio-based innovation in the chemical sector: a dynamic global perspective, Journal of Cleaner Production 272(November 2020): 122738.

Pahmeyer, C., Britz, W. (2020): Economic opportunities of using crossbreeding and sexing in Holstein dairy herds, Journal of Dairy Science 103(9): 8218-8230.

Seidel, C., Britz, W. (2020): Estimating a Dual Value Function as a Meta-Model of a Detailed Dynamic Mathematical Programming Model, Bio-based and Applied Economic 8(1): 75-99.

Spiegel, A., Britz, W., Finger, R., Djanibekov, U. (2020): Stochastic-dynamic modelling of farm-level investments under uncertainty, Environmental Modeling and Software 127(May 2020): 104656.

Spiegel, A., Severini, S., Britz, W., Coletta, A. (2020): Step-by-step development of a model simulating returns on farm from investments: the example of hazelnut plantation in Italy, Bio-Based and Applied Economics 9(1): 53-83.

Arata, L., Britz, W. (2019): Econometric mathematical programming: an application to the estimation of costs and risk preferences at farm level, Agricultural Economics 50(2): 191-206.

Britz, W., Roson, R. (2019): G-RDEM: A GTAP-Based Recursive Dynamic CGE Model for Long-Term Baseline Generation and Analysis, Journal of Global Economic Analysis 4(1): 50-96.

Haddad, S., Britz, W., Börner, J. (2019): Economic Impacts and Land Use Change from Increasing Demand for Forest Products in the European Bioeconomy: A General Equilibrium Based Sensitivity Analysis, Forests 10(52): 1-27.

Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Beckman, J. (2019): The impacts to food consumers of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Bio-based and Appplied Economics 7(2): 139-160.

Kuhn, T., Schäfer, D., Holm-Müller, K., Britz, W. (2019): On-farm compliance costs with the EU-Nitrates Directive: A modelling approach for specialized livestock production in northwest Germany, Agricultural Systems 173: 233-243.

Mosnier, C., Britz, W., Julliere, T., De Cara, S., Jayet, P.-A., Havlik, P., Frank, S., Mosnier, A. (2019): Greenhouse gas abatement strategies and costs in French dairy production, Journal of Cleaner Production 236(November 2019): 117589.

Seidel, C., Heckelei, T., Lakner, S. (2019): Conventionalization of Organic Farms in Germany: An Empirical Investigation Based on a Composite Indicator Approach, Sustainability 11 (10)(2934): 16 pages.

Böcker, T., Britz, W., Finger, R. (2018): Modelling the Effects of a Glyphosate Ban on Weed Management in Silage Maize Production, Ecological Economics 145: 182-193.

Britz, W., van der Mensbrugghe, D. . (2018): CGEBox: A Flexible, Modular and Extendable Framework for CGE Analysis in GAMS, Journal of Global Economic Analysis 3(2): 106-176.

Escobar, N., Haddad, S., Börner, J., Britz, W. (2018): Land use mediated GHG emissions and spillovers from increased consumption of bioplastic, Environmental Research Letters 13(12).

Jafari, Y., Britz, W. (2018): Modelling heterogeneous firms and non-tariff measures in free trade agreements using Computable General Equilibrium, Economic Modelling 73: 279-294.

Kuhn, T., Kokemohr, L., Holm-Müller, K. (2018): A life cycle assessment of liquid pig manure transport in line with EU regulations: A case study from Germany, Journal of Environmental Management 217: 456-467.

Mittenzwei, K., Britz, W. (2018): Analysing Farm-specific Payments for Norway using the Agrispace Model, Journal of Agricultural Economics 69(3): 777-793.

Spiegel, A., Britz, W., Djanibekov, U., Finger, R. (2018): Policy analysis of perennial energy crop cultivation at the farm level: Short rotation coppice (SRC) in Germany, Biomass and Bioenergy 110: 41-56.

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