The importance of immoral behavior in agriculture

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniel Hermann
• Subject Area: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422352080

Popular and inglorious examples, such as the Dioxin affair, reveal that immoral behavior matters in agriculture. Such immoral actions reduce the trust of consumers in agriculture and thus result in economic consequences for the complete sector. To investigate the immoral behavior of farmers, economic experiments are conducted and carried out with farmers and a control group of students. The target sample size is 240 farmers as well as 240 students. Three major questions are to be answered: first, is immoral behavior different between students and farmers? Second, do business relations (i.e. a reduced social distance) reduce participants’ immoral behavior? Finally, is a new methodological approach to measure immoral behavior experimentally necessary and how could it be designed?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants