PhD student Dilsuz Nurmukhanmatova published an article in the Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, entitled Determinants of Market Power In European Industries. The paper addresses drivers of market power in nine industries in 21 European countries. 

Nurmukhanmatova, Dilsuz, and Thomas Kopp. 2026: "Determinants of Market Power In European Industries". Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 26(5): 1-18. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10842-026-00467-y#Sec3.

Abstract:
While the scholarly work on market power at the macroeconomic level has gained momentum during the last decades, there is still little empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of market power across industries as well as on the relation between market power and structural industry characteristics. This study thus explores the influence of market concentration and industry-specific factors on market power, as measured by markups, across nine industries within the European Union. The econometric estimation employs the Group Fixed Effect estimator and is based on a rich panel data set of 21 European countries for the years 1999-2021. To identify both proximate and ultimate drivers of market power, potential determinants include market concentration rates and structural conditions of the industries under consideration. Results reveal a significant correlation between market concentration and firms’ markup, which displays, however, substantial heterogeneity across sectors. The same is true for the relation between markups and investments in technology, research and development, and marketing expenses. Results are robust to the choice of the estimation procedure.

Our colleagues from Südwind Austria created an additional version of our educational game "The Good Life for all". The new game addresses the topic "Mobility and Resources". It can be downloaded for free here:

https://bildung2030.at/lernmedien/medientipp/ein-gutes-leben-fuer-alle-mobilitaet-rohstoffe/

Also, a limited number of copies of the original game "The Good Life for All" are still available. The games can be ordered free of charge by contacting Harriet.Luedtke. (The remaining copies are in German.)

Background: We developed the game in 2023 in collaboration with teachers from Germany and Tanzania. More information can be found here: www.the good life for all.info.

Please note: All remaining copies of the game are gone now.

Aimen Abbas presented her research at the University of Milan on how stricter environmental policies in Europe may influence global emissions through international trade, highlighting the challenges of reducing carbon footprints in an interconnected world.

As the concluding event of the ICODICE project (Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education), the Chair of Prof. Thomas Kopp, in collaboration with Kerala Agricultural University, facilitated two online exchange sessions between Heisenberg Gymnasium Bruchsal (Germany) and Mitraniketan School (India).

Students from both universities co-designed and facilitated the online school exchanges. They gained hands-on experience with didactic planning and the practical organization of international online formats. During the sessions, participating school students shared their perspectives and discussed urban agriculture and watershed management in India and Germany.

The Professorship for Global Nutrition and Trade held a team meeting on December 09 and 10 in Gießen. Chair members shared updates on their respective ongoing research projects and provided helpful feedback to each other's work.

On December 04, Markus Nabernegg defended his PhD thesis as the first member of our group. The talk provided an overview of the five papers combined in his thesis, entitled "Essays on Inequality, Digitalization, and the Environment". Dr. Nabernegg received the top grade, summa cum laude. Congratulations! 

A warm thank you goes to the other members of the thesis committee: Prof. Nils Goldschmidt, serving as chair, and Prof. Svenja Flechtner, serving as second examiner.

The future of academic workspaces between climate targets and academic needs was the focus of discussions at the international ‘Sustainable Academia Forum’ on November 28, 2025.

The participants, Prof. Thomas Kopp, JLU Giessen, Germany, Prof. Alexandra den Heijer, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, and Riet van de Velde, Ghent University, Belgium, met to discuss new requirements and develop visions for the infrastructure and spatial planning of tomorrow's universities and research institutes, considering the changing working models and climatic changes of recent years.

Prof. Kopp gave the guest lecture “Effects of the Digitalization in Plant Production on Greenhouse Gas Emissions” at the international conference
"Climate-Weed Nexus: Innovations for Sustainable Agriculture CWIS 2025" on November 27-28 at Kerala Agricultural University in India,
organised by our colleague Prof. Archana Raghavan Sathyan.

In his talk, he presented joint work with Robert Finger, Robert Huber (both ETH Zürich), Markus Nabernegg (Uni Gießen), and Richard J. Sexton (University of California, Davis)
on the implications of digital yield monitoring on nitrous oxide emissions in US-agriculture. 

This year’s climate camp, organized by the Scientists for Future (S4F) Gießen section took place at Castle Rauischholzhausen from Oct 17 – 19, 2025.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Kopp reported on Sustainable Economy
referring upon questions like:

Is economic growth possible without an environmental price?

Is economic growth possible while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions?

Or is this decoupling an illusion? Might be the so called “post-growth economy” a possibility to reduce emissions sufficient?

Further information can be found here https://www.s4f-camp-giessen.com/ and here https://www.s4f-camp-giessen.com/programmneu

This year's annual congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) took place at the University of Bonn, Germany. It was also the 50th anniversary of this association. Chair member Marcel Böhl presented his work "Can Inequality & Biodiversity Loss Be Tackled Together?" (joint work with T. Kopp and M. Nabernegg). 
Prof. Kopp presented the papers "Reducing Negative Effects of Risk Aversion on Farming Outcomes: Evidence for Systematic External Selection into Profitable Contracts" (with A. K. Mishra and A. Dsouza) and "The Relation between Income Inequality and Dietary Diversity" (with A. Risius and M. Nabernegg).

Group member Dilsuz Nurmukhanmatova participated in the 9th International PhD Meeting in Economics 2025, held in Thessaloniki, Greece on July 10–11. She presented the working paper “Market Power, Digitalization, and Income Inequality in Europe,” where she discussed how digitalization and corporate markups interact to shape inequality trends across European economies.

The Meeting brought together doctoral researchers from across Europe and beyond, offering an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas, receive constructive feedback, and engage in discussions on cutting-edge topics in economics.

The Professorship for  Global Nutrition and Trade at the University of Gießen advertises the position of a Research Assistant with a Bachelor`s degree to start on 01.10.2024 with the following conditions:

• 8 Hours per week at a monthly salary of EUR 486.
• Permanent presence in Gießen will not be required.
• Candidates must have obtained a BA degree and be enrolled in a German university.

Applications are to be sent to thomas.kopp before September 14, 2025.

More details can be found under this link: www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/karriere/stellenangebote/studentische-hilfskraefte/hiwi_global_nutrition_and_trade

Group members Aimen Abbas, Ayça Akçakoca, and Vipul Chawla participated in the Rethinking Economics Summer School, organized by the  Institute for Transformation and Economy Studies . The Summer School brought together academics and practitioners to explore diverse economic schools of thought and to engage in discussions on anti-fascist economics—its causes, consequences, and potential courses of action.

During the Summer School, participants examined topics such as housing system transformation through systems thinking and financialization, the role of agriculture in sustainable food transitions, and energy policy and climate action in the context of politicization and populism.

Vipul Chawla presented his work on “Income Inequality and Housing Living Space in Europe.” His workshop invited participants to reflect on critical questions, including what constitutes adequate housing, how housing living space can be measured, and which factors influence housing adequacy. His study explores the relationship between income inequality and housing living space, with a focus on how this relationship differs between post-socialist and non-post-socialist countries in Europe.

This year's annual meeting of the AAEA took place in Denver Colorado. Tom Kopp presented the joint work with Alwin Dsouza (New Mexico State University) and Ashok K. Mishra (Arizona State University) entitled "Reducing Negative Effects of Risk Aversion on Farming Outcomes: Evidence for Systematic External Selection into Profitable Contracts". The attendance at the conference was followed by a visit to friend and colleague Richard J. Sexton at the University of California, Davis. 

Several members of our group visited Oslo/Norway to attend the 18th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) which was also jointly organized as the 11th International Degrowth Conference.

Five Phd candidates as well as Professor Kopp presented their current work and enjoyed the discussions with the attendees of the conference.

Dilsuz Nurmukhanmatova presented her study, "Market Power, Digitalization, and Income Inequality in Europe", in which she revealed that while higher firm‑level markups tend to amplify income inequality, increased ICT investment significantly attenuates these inequality‑widening effects of market power.

Aimen Abbas gave insights on her study "Assessing the Distributional Impact of Environmental Policy Stringency in the EU". This study finds that stricter environmental policies raise pre- and post-tax national income inequality, but, thanks to taxation and in-kind transfers, have no significant effect on disposable income inequality.

Marcel Böhl’s study, “Can We Tackle Inequality & Biodiversity Loss Together?” indicates that in high‑income countries, efforts to reduce inequality alone can inadvertently harm biodiversity, highlighting the necessity of pairing redistribution policies with targeted conservation measures to safeguard ecosystems in these countries.

Inga Stademann presented her work "Success determinants and impact of sustainability projects on overall sustainability of universities" in the form of a poster. She finds that early planning for project continuation and aligning project goals with institutional sustainability strategies contribute meaningfully to long-term transformation efforts.

Markus Nabernegg presented his work "Extreme Income Inequality in Ecuador - Dollarization, Commodity Price Boom, and Citizen Revolution in Ecuador", revealing that Ecuador's economy shifted from an extractive to a weakly inclusive system during commodity booms, but rising economic power concentration and the COVID-19 shock have eroded redistribution and threatened this fragile process.

Thomas Kopp displayed his research titled "The Relation between Income Inequality and Dietary Diversity". This study finds that cutting income inequality boosts dietary diversity in moderately and highly unequal societies but can reduce it in already equal ones, so efforts to lower inequality should also protect diet variety.

Thomas Kopp and Markus Nabernegg also organized a special session entitled "New Research on the Relationship between Economic Inequality and Environmental Impact", which brought together leading scholars in the field - including Lutz Sager, Ilona Otto, Svenja Flechtner, and Steffen Lange - to examine the trade-offs between inequality and environmental degradation and to challenge the political and economic paradigms shaping the inequality-ecology nexus.

We are running hybrid online classes with students from the University of Gießen (JLU) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) on “World Food Systems in Transition.” The course is part of the “Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education” (ICODICE) project.

Students follow lectures by Prof. Dr. Thomas Kopp (JLU) and Prof. Dr. Archana Sathyan (KAU), give joint presentations in cross-university groups, and take part in small-group discussions in online breakout rooms. The course examines alternative models for sustainability in global food systems.

As part of the ICODICE (Internationally connected digital classrooms education) project, students from the University of Siegen and the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) worked together online to design activities for an upcoming online session between school classes in Kerala and Germany.

The goal of the session was to prepare the achievement of learning objectives on urban agriculture and watershed management in the context of sustainable farming during the school exchange. This was the final session of the summer term, and everyone is now looking forward to finalizing the planning and carrying out the online exchange with the school classes in the winter term.

The Chair of the Professorship Global Trade and World Food Security conducted a team meeting on June 12 and 13 at the Zeughaus building at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen. Chair members shared updates on their respective ongoing research projects and provided helpful feedback to each other's work. Since this was the team's first meeting in Gießen, the members enjoyed exploring the beautiful city and its surroundings.

Prof. Kopp and project staff member Aimen Abbas participated in the intermediate project review meeting of the Horizon Europe-funded GreenPaths initiative, held at the European Commission in Brussels. The meeting provided an opportunity to present the project's progress and outcomes to date. The contributions from the University of Siegen / Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen were positively received.