Prof. Dr. Achim Schlüter
Professor of Social Systems and Ecological Economics
My main research interest is in institutions and institutional change in the field of the environment. What rules of the game do people have for organising economic exchange of environmental resources? How does a change of those rules take place? Since I am working at the Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology in Bremen the focus is on coastal and marine issues in the tropics. This is particularly interesting, as the establishing of property rights in the marine realm is lagging behind in comparison to other environmental resources. However, the current resource pressure is extremely high, requiring institutional change. In our working group “institutional and behavioural economics” we are applying a variety of methods for understanding the role of various institutions on sustainable resource use. We investigate, using ethnographic research, the institutional change in the area of marine protected areas in Costa Rica. We use the SES diagnostic framework for comparing different marine protected areas in various continents. We use various forms of experiments from natural to lab experiments for studying the effect of various institutions on sustainable use.
Selected Publications
- Weber de Morais, G., Schlüter, A., & Verweij, M. (2015). Can institutional change theories contribute to the understanding of marine protected areas? Global Environmental Change, 31(0), 154-162.
- Schlüter, A.; Wise, S.; Schwerdtner Mánez, K.; de Morais, G.W.; Glaser, M. Institutional Change, Sustainability and the Sea. Sustainability 2013, 5, 5373-5390.
- Madrigal-Ballestero, R., Alpízar, F. and Schlüter, A. 2013 'Public perceptions of the performance of community-based drinking water organizations in Costa Rica', Water Resources and Rural Development 1–2(0): 43-56.
- Madrigal, R., Schlüter, A. and Lopez, M. C. (2013) 'What makes them follow the rules?: empirical evidence from turtle egg harvesters in Costa Rica.', Marine Policy 37: 270–277.
- Schlüter, A. and Madrigal, R. 2012 'The SES Framework in a Marin Setting: Turtle Egg Harvesting in Costa Rica', Rationality, Moral and Markets 3 (Special Issue about: Coevolving Relationships between Political Science and Economics; reflecting the work of Elinor Ostrom): 148-167.