PhD: Leveraging Adolescent Agency to Improve Food Environments at School

Are you a development or behavioural economist interested in how young people make decisions about their health and nutrition? Would you like to conduct experimental research on adolescent nutrition and school food environments in Indonesia?

Adolescent nutrition in low- and middle-income countries remains a critical yet understudied determinant of health and development. While policy attention has traditionally focused on early childhood, adolescence constitutes a second window of opportunity for nutritional improvement. It is also a period of substantial emotional, cognitive and social change, in which growing agency and decision-making capacity increasingly shape health behaviours.

This PhD position is part of a research project examining how adolescent agency can be leveraged in school-based nutrition interventions in Indonesia. The research focuses on food preferences, dietary intake and purchasing behaviour and brings together insights from development economics, behavioural economics and public health nutrition.

As a PhD candidate, you will be involved in field experiments that explore behavioural mechanisms through which agency may affect food preferences of adolescents. You will conduct extensive fieldwork in Indonesia and work closely with an international and multidisciplinary research team.

Your duties and responsibilities in this project :

• conduct co-creation sessions and focus group discussions with local stakeholders;
• contribute to the design and implementation of a behavioural experiments and large-scale randomized controlled trial in secondary schools in Indonesia;
• manage and analyse experimental and survey data using rigorous econometric methods, and prepare pre-analysis plans, research reports and academic papers;
• communicate and collaborate local research partners and stakeholders, and contribute to dissemination meetings, policy briefs and academic conferences.

You will work here
This position will be based at the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University and Research (WUR). You will be co-supervised by dr. Robert Sparrow (WUR), prof. dr. Matthias Rieger (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and prof. dr. Tri Mulyaningsih (Universitas Sebelas Maret).

The project brings together researchers from Wageningen University & Research, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Universitas Sebelas Maret. You will collaborate closely with researchers across these institutions throughout the project.

The empirical research will take place in and around Solo, Central Java. You will therefore spend a considerable amount of time in Indonesia, where you will be hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Business at Universitas Sebelas Maret during fieldwork. You will also spend time at Erasmus University Rotterdam to engage with the wider research team.