How do subsidies affect land use?

The European Union has set ambitious targets for the agricultural sector with the Green Deal until 2030. To achieve these, land use and land management need to be regulated in a finely tuned way. Alexander Mozdzen, PhD student at the Department of Statistics at the University of Klagenfurt, in collaboration with Tamás Kristin (IIASA) and Gregor Kastner (University of Klagenfurt), has developed an innovative Bayesian space-time model to analyse the impact of agricultural subsidies on land use in Europe. The model aims to provide a clearer assessment of which policies have been effective in regulating land use.

The research project uses statistical methods to reveal perspectives for the sustainable promotion of food production in Europe. The underlying question here is: How great is the influence of subsidy policies? “We want to use the new model to better understand what effects policy measures have in relation to agricultural expansion and whether these manifest differently in different regions,” Alexander Mozdzen explains.

Alexander Mozdzen is a PhD student at the Department of Statistics at the University of Klagenfurt. He recently successfully participated in the prestigious Young Scientist Summer Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Within the framework of this programme, doctoral students cooperate closely with leading IIASA researchers on groundbreaking research questions.

The innovative model developed by Mozdzen makes a significant contribution to linking research and policy-making in the field of sustainable resource use.