In the project Layers of Natural Resource Extraction, we develop and apply new methods to assess the impacts of resource extraction. New Bayesian methods allow us to better capture and analyze the economic, environmental and social layers of these impacts, and help us better understand the interconnections between them and across time and space.

Research

• Vashold, L., Pirich, G., Heinze, M., and Kuschnig, N. (2025). Downstream Impacts of Mines on Agriculture in Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 179:103671, DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103671.

• Sepin, P., Kuschnig, N., and Vashold, L.: Mapping Mining Areas in the Tropics from 2016 to 2024 (2025). Nature Sustainability, 8:1400–1407, DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01668-9, Working Paper, Interactive Map.

• Luckeneder, S., Maus, V., Siqueira-Gay, J. Krisztin, T., and Kuhn, M.: Forest Loss and Uncertain Economic Gains from Industrial and Garimpo Mining in Brazilian Municipalities. Nature Communications, 16, 6543, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61930-8.

• Kuschnig, N., Vashold, L., Soterroni, A., and Obersteiner, M. (2023). Eroding Resilience of Deforestation Interventions — Evidence from Brazil’s Lost Decade. Environmental Research Letters, 18(7):074039, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acdfe7.

Work-in-progress

• Kuschnig, N.: Networks in Space – Spillovers in Amazon Deforestation. Work in Progress, Slides.

• Kuschnig, N. and Vashold, L.: Man Eats Forest: Impacts of Cattle Ranching on Amazon Deforestation. Work in Progress, Slides.

Team

• Nikolas Kuschnig – Principal Investigator
• Stefan Giljum – Principal Investigator
• Lukas Vashold – Researcher
• Sebastian Luckeneder – Researcher
• Maximilian Heinze – Research Assistant
• Philipp Sepin – Research Assistant
• Gustav Pirich – Research Assistant

Get in touch

Nikolas Kuschnig (nikolas.kuschnig@wu.ac.at)
Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)
Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria