Christine Werthmann was trained in business administration with a focus on economic problems in developing countries. After her studies, she participated in a postgraduate program in rural development at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and gained experiences in the international development co-operation. She conducted her doctoral research in Economics at the Institute for Co-operation in Developing Countries, Philipps-University Marburg.
In cooperation with the WorldFish Center she investigated institutional arrangements in community-based aquaculture in the Mekong Delta of Cambodia and Vietnam. The research was funded by the IFPRI System-Wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi). Since September 2010, Christine is working in the "Sustainable Hyderabad Project" at the Division of Resource Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, leading the Workpackage on Energy and Water. Her main research interest concerns cooperation among resources users, the role of trust in successful collective action and the influence of earlier collective action on cooperation. In her research she applies action research and experimental economics.