Profile
Renate Hartwig heads the research group Population and Development at RWI and is Professor of Empirical Development Economics at Ruhr University Bochum.
Her research examines population dynamics as fundamental drivers of economic and institutional development. It focuses on how changes in fertility, family structures, migration, health, and the age and gender composition of populations shape individual decision-making and long-term transformation processes — locally grounded and with global implications.
A central pillar of her work addresses research questions for which reliable data are largely unavailable. She therefore develops original survey designs and builds primary datasets, particularly in West, Central, and East Africa as well as in Indonesia. Her projects are conducted in interdisciplinary collaborations that systematically integrate economic, demographic, and public health perspectives.
More recently she is also engaged in meta-science. She analyzes how scientific evidence is generated and which (incentive) structures shape research processes.
Renate Hartwig has extensive experience in development policy practice, including work for the World Bank and in various advisory roles for governments and non-governmental organizations.
The results of her research have been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of Development Economics, Economic Development & Cultural Change, World Development, and Health Economics.
Renate Hartwig is a member of the Standing Field
Committee of Devleopment Economics of the Verein für Sozialpolitik. In
addition, she is part of the leadership level of the Leibniz Research Alliance INFECTIONS and a member of the
advisory board of the International
Centre for Antimicorbial Resistance Solutions (ICARS).