Marrit van den Berg

Dr. Marrit van den Berg serves as Associate Professor at the Development Economics Group of Wageningen University & Research, where she specializes in agricultural economics and rural development in developing countries. After completing her studies in tropical land use and development economics, she earned her PhD from Wageningen University in 2001. Her research focuses on rural household livelihoods in developing countries, with particular emphasis on food and nutrition security, off-farm diversification, technology adoption, and microfinance. As project leader and senior researcher, she has conducted extensive field research across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, employing quantitative methods including econometric analysis, behavioral experiments, and randomized controlled trials. Her influential work includes groundbreaking research on household income strategies during natural disasters in Nicaragua, rural poverty dynamics in Kenya, and the effects of international migration on crop income in the Kyrgyz Republic. Through her teaching in the MOOC "Sustainable Food Security: Food Access" and the XSeries Programme in Food Security and Sustainability, she helps students understand complex development economics concepts while focusing on methods and techniques for field research. Her expertise spans multiple areas including impact assessment, program evaluation, and risk management, contributing significantly to our understanding of rural development and poverty alleviation strategies in developing countries.