Date of birth
September, 1st, 1975

Place of birth
Cologne, Germany

Undergraduate studies

• 1997-1999: Georg-August-University Göttingen (Basic Studies)
• 1999-2003: Georg-August-University Göttingen (Studies in Agricultural Economics)
• M. Sc. Thesis: “Agrarpolitische Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung nationaler Tier- und Verbraucherschutzstandards im Zuge fortschreitender Handelsliberalisierung"

Current position
Since 2004: Research assistent at the chair of agricultural markets and policy, Georg-August-University Göttingen (Prof. Dr. B. Brümmer)

Research project

• IDEMA – The Impact of Decoupling and Modulation in the Enlarged Union: A sectoral and farm level assessment
  
  The research project is part of the sixth framework programme of the European Commission and carried out by a group of institutes and organisations throughout the enlarged EU. It aims to develop methods and tools to provide a comprehensive socio-economic assessment of the impact of decoupling and modulation on the EU farm sector and the environment, taking into account the implications of cross-compliance. The project will assess the impact of decoupling on market demand and supply, trade, localisation of production, land use, land markets, structural change, farm income, and farmers’ entry/exit behaviour. Since no single methodological approach is able to take into account all aspects of this complex issue, the project is organised around three complementary approaches. These approaches are: (a) survey-based analysis of farmers’ strategic decisions, (b) dynamic farm level/regional modelling and (c) sector level/general equilibrium modelling.
  
  The specific task of this chair is to further develop the partial equilibrium model ESIM (European Simulation Model) as well as country-specific general equilibrium models for the EU-15 and for the new member countries. More precisely, the models will be extended to include fodder and voluntary set-aside area as well as an explicit representation of land markets. The recent version of ESIM captures all candidate countries from central Europe separately, however, the EU-15 is modelled as a single region. Due to the differences in land use and farm structure this highly aggregated single region will be split up into smaller areas, e.g. on the level of individual EU-15 member countries. In the end, simulations to quantify the impact of decoupling on production, consumption and trade will be produced.

Publications

• BALKHAUSEN, O. and M. BANSE (2005): Modelling of Land Use and Land Markets in Partial and General Equilibrium Models: The Current State, working paper prepared for the joint EU research project “The Impact of Decoupling and Modulation in the Enlarged Union: A Sectoral and Farm Level Assessment”, revised version, Göttingen.


• BALKHAUSEN, O., M. BANSE, H. GRETHE and S. Nolte (2005): Modelling the Effects of Partial Decoupling on Crop and Fodder Area as well as Ruminant Supply in the EU: Current State and Outlook, paper prepared for the 89th EAAE seminar, February 3 – 5, in Parma, Italy.


• BALKHAUSEN, O. (2003): Agrarpolitische Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung nationaler Tier- und Verbraucherschutzstandards im Zuge fortschreitender Handelsliberalisierung, Masterarbeit, Göttingen.

Work experience

• 1997/99: Editorial work at „Agrarsoziale Gesellschaft e.V.“, Göttingen, Germany
• 2000: Internship at „Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau“, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
• 2001/02: Internship at “Food and Agriculture Organisation”, Rome, Italy
• 2003/04: Traineeship at „Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtstelle für Erzeugnisse der Land-, Forst- und Ernährungswirtschaft“, Bonn, Germany

Teaching experience

• WiSe 2004/05: Modul “World agricultural markets” (Teaching assistance)
• SoSe 2004: Modul „Marktwirtschaftliche, rechtliche und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen des ökologischen Landbaus“ (Teaching)

Languages

• German
• English