Eefje de Gelder is a PhD student doing research on the mainstreaming of Fairtrade at the Institute for Management Research (IMR) at Radboud University. She is doing research on how the development of increased supply and demand within the fairtrade movement affect transfers to the fairtrade beneficiaries. More specifically: the consequences of mainstreaming fairtrade for the smallholders in developing countries. Currently she’s setting up a competition model to analyze developments at the supply side, as well as experiments and a field study to see how the demand side –consumers- behave with respect to the increased popularity of fairtrade products.

Before she did a Bachelor Economics in Tilburg, of which she spent one year at Universidad de Navarra (Spain). After that, she got a MSc Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and a MA Christianity and Society degree at Tilburg University. The theses she wrote were all related to various aspects of fairtrade: in relation to economic growth, in relation to the agricultural strategies of the World Bank, and the last one in relation to the theology of Thomas Aquinas concerning the concept of just pricing.