Van der Bellen studied economics at the University of Innsbruck and obtained a master's degree in 1966. With his dissertation Kollektive Haushalte und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmungen: Probleme ihrer Koordination ("Collective households and public-service enterprises: Problems of their coordination") he was awarded the title of Dr. rer. oec (doctor rerum oeconomicarum) in 1970. From 1968 to 1971 he served as scientific assistant to Clemens August Andreae at the Institute for Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck, and from 1972 to 1974 as a research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). He was university assistant at the Institute for Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck and was awarded the qualification as university lecturer (habilitation) in 1975. He established friendship with Turkish economist Murat R. Sertel, with whom he worked on decision and preference theories and later on published several articles and discussion papers.
