Gaëlle Leduc joins the Department of Economics

How come you applied for a job at the department of economics?

After being a research assistant during four months at the department I wanted to continue in the field of agricultural economics. I have always been attracted by policy analysis and this PhD project is relevant for the CAP policy-making, which is very much discussed in my home country. Also working with mixed methods fits into my academic background as I hold a master in “pure” economics from Paris School of Economics and a master in global political economy from Stockholm University.

What projects will you be involved in?

I will be supervised by Helena Hansson (SLU), Gordana Manevska-Tasevska (SLU) and Andrew Barnes (Scottish Rural College) to work on the LIFT project (Low-Input Farming and Territories - Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem-based farming) which is funded by the European Commission. Within this project, I will investigate the incentives for Swedish farmers to convert from conventional farming to ecological practices. Particularly, the analysis will focus on both endogenous (age, gender, knowledge, farm structure) and exogenous drivers (social spillovers, agronomic conditions, economic and non-economic incentives from up and downstream sectors), the latter including policy and market instruments. I will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to study this topic.

Five Quick questions:

Spring or fall? - Spring with anti-allergy medicine.

Dog or cat? - I grew up with cats but I now have a dog so … dog!

Can you play any music instrument? - I sing, in a choir or alone. I wished I invested some time to learn piano as well.

Favourite book? - Recently it has been “Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind” of Yuval Noah Harari.

Favourite movie? - “The Big Blue” (or “Le Grand Bleu” in French) from Luc Besson.