Professor Pondorfer’s focuses on individual decision making by integrating insights from biology, anthropology, and psychology into economics. In a first line of work, he studies the origins and economic implications of behavior across countries. In a second line of work, he aims to understand the societal and behavioral challenges of the bioeconomy by analyzing public perception of climate change and climate policies.

Professor Pondorfer completed his PhD in economics at the University of Kiel in 2016. During his PhD studies, he was employed as an economist at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). From 2016 to 2021, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Applied Microeconomics at the University of Bonn. He also held a visiting position at Harvard University in the fall term 2018. In March 2021 he joined TUM and was appointed as Professor of Sustainable Economic Policy at TUMCS for Biotechnology and Sustainability.