Jaan Looga Successfully Defended His Doctoral Thesis

The entire University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration congratulates Jaan Looga on the successful defence of his doctoral thesis!

On 6 May, Jaan Looga defended his doctoral thesis in economics entitled „The Role of Small Peripheral Local Governments in Farm Innovation: Land Consolidation as a Spatial Planning Instrument in Estonia".

The central finding of the thesis is that improving the spatial structure of a farm's land use significantly increases the likelihood of farmers engaging in innovation — investing in new technology and production methods. This means that small peripheral local governments can act as a supporting force for agricultural innovation by making use of their spatial planning competence.

The thesis was supervised by Professor Kadri Ukrainski and Professor Emeritus Peter Joachim Friedrich. The opponents were Professor Vida Malienė from Liverpool John Moores University and Senior Researcher Ants-Hannes Viira from the Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce.

The doctoral thesis is available here.