Anita is a PhD candidate at CML since September 2026.

More information about Anita Vollmer

Professional experience

Before starting her PhD, Anita completed a BSc in Environmental Sciences at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, an MSc in Ecological Economics at the University of Leeds, and later an MA in European Economic Studies and Public Policy Analysis at the College of Europe.

For her Masters thesis at the University of Leeds she conducted environmentally-extended input-output analysis to explore the impact advertising restrictions could have in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

Anita also worked as a Junior Researcher at the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition in Brussels and, most recently, as a Research Assistant on the Energy, Environment and Infrastructure team of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Ireland. At the ESRI, Anita was mainly involved in work on the potential of biomethane as an alternative energy source.

Research topic

In her PhD, Anita focuses on how wellbeing is impacted through both formally recognized consumption and production processes, as well as factors which lie outside these processes, such as social relationships and unpaid work. As part of this work, she is interested in exploring wellbeing interdependencies and inequalities between different groups as well as the environmental intensity of different types of wellbeing-enhancing activities. Her aim is to contribute to our understanding of how to create socially just wellbeing within planetary boundaries.

For her research, Anita is working with the global MARIO input-output database to link economic activity to production-side wellbeing indicators (e.g. work hours) and consumption-side wellbeing indicators (e.g. needs satisfaction) as well as additional survey data to better understand wellbeing outside of the formal production-consumption sphere.