Prof. Dr. Robert Finger

Research focus

Robert Finger's research lies at the interface of agricultural science and economics, with the aim of improving the resilience and sustainability of agricultural and food systems. The focus is on farm-level decisions and their linkages with the environment, markets, society and policy, particularly in the context of European agriculture. Its interdisciplinary research provides valuable input to decision-making in agricultural policy, on farms and in upstream and downstream industries. The wide range of research activities covers various topics related to agricultural practices and systems, with a particular focus on the evaluation and design of agricultural policies and the economics of pest management and risk management.

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1981, Robert Finger studied economics at the European University in Frankfurt Oder (Germany). In 2006, he joined the ETH Zurich as a PhD student, contributing to an interdisciplinary research project on the impacts of and adaptation to climate change in Swiss agriculture, and received his doctorate in 2009. After a postdoctoral position at the ETH Zurich, he became Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) from 2012 to 2014. He then held the position of Professor of Production Economics at the University of Bonn (Germany) from 2014 to 2016. Since 2016, he has been Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy at ETH Zurich.

Teaching, service and outreach

Robert Finger is an active contributor to the Agricultural Sciences program at ETH Zurich, teaching six courses at bachelor and master level. His involvement extends to teaching at the doctoral level, such as in the German-Swiss-Austrian Doctoral Certificate Program in Agricultural Economics, and to continuing education programs at ETH Zurich.

Since 2021, he has been Chair of the World Food System Centre at ETH Zurich and promoting multi- and transdisciplinary approaches in research, education and outreach activities in support of sustainable food security. Since 2023 he chairs the steering committee for a major open research data initiative involving all six institutions of the ETH Domain. Robert Finger's commitment extends to various national and international scientific committees, including his role as a board member of the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.

He is an editor and editorial board member of several agricultural economics and interdisciplinary journals, including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, Q Open and Agricultural Systems.

Robert Finger and his team are heavily involved in outreach and science communication. For example, they have set up a blog on agricultural policy that synthesizes academic papers into non-technical blog posts in German or French aimed at non-academic stakeholders (https://agrarpolitik-blog.com). Since 2024 he is elected member of the extra-parliamentarian committee on agricultural policy in Switzerland (Beratende Kommission für Landwirtschaft). The NZZ newspaper listed Robert Finger as one of the most influential economists in Switzerland. 

Honors and awards

Robert Finger has published more than 210 peer reviewed papers in leading agricultural economic and interdisciplinary journals. Robert Finger has been awarded the ETH Medal and the GEWISOLA Prize for his doctoral thesis by the German Society for Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture. Numerous publications he has co-authored or authored have received awards for scientific quality and societal impact. For example, the paper by Vroege et al. (2021, ERAE) received the 'Outstanding Journal Article Award' from the European Review of Agricultural Economics. The paper by Bucheli et al. (2021, ERAE) received the Societal impact Award in honour of Giovani Anania from the European Association of Agricultural Economists. The work on the Agrarpolitik Blog received the 2022 Award for outstanding 'Communication between the Agricultural Economic and Social Sciences & Society' from the German Society for Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences. Under Robert Finger's leadership, researchers in his team at various academic levels have received awards for outstanding research achievements. Since 2016, eight of his team members have been promoted to professorships at leading universities around the world.