Tobias' research delves into the design of provisioning systems that enable a good life for all while remaining within planetary boundaries. In particular, he is interested in the role of public services for achieving high levels of wellbeing at low carbon levels. Key concepts of his dissertation include the foundational economy, sustainable welfare, and sufficiency.
As part of his dissertation, he investigated the socio-spatial inequality of everyday infrastructures, their role for livability and their leverage to break car-dependency in Vienna. In most recent work, he examines the effective composition of government spendings to provide high need satisfaction at low carbon levels.
Blending quantitative methods such as geospatial mapping, regression modeling, and cluster analysis with qualitative approaches like walking diaries and expert interviews, Tobias adopts a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective as it is typical in his field of literature, namely ecological economics. For his dissertation, he draws upon a diverse and extensive network of expertise, collaborating with scholars from CEU, BOKU, WU, TU Vienna, and the universities of Leeds and Cambridge. His research has received additional support from the City of Vienna Jubilee Fund and the WU Junior Faculty Small-Scale Projects Fund.
As an external advisor to HAND GmbH, his work also informs and influences contemporary urban planning in Vienna. Tobias is on track to complete his four-year PhD program at the Environment Department of CEU in 2026.
