Nico Heerink is an associate professor with the Development Economics (DEC) Group at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and a guest professor at Nanjing Agricultural University (China). From 2012-2015 he held a Qiushi Chair at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China). From 2004 to 2006, he worked in Beijing as China Office Co-ordinator & Research Fellow for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His current research activities concentrate on the impact of economic policies on sustainable agricultural and rural development in China and other developing countries. He has published articles, books and book chapters on economic policy reforms in less developed countries, economics of sustainable land use, drivers and consequences of migration, income inequality and economic development, international trade and the environment, rural public investment, and the economics of low-external-input agriculture.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2012.