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Agricultural economics

February 15, 2024

Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem. Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much broader. Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics.[1][2][3][4] Agricultural economists have made substantial contributions to research in economics, econometrics, development economics, and environmental economics. Agricultural economics influences food policy, agricultural policy, and environmental policy.

Origins edit

 
Cartoon showing U.S. President Calvin Coolidge carrying the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill in a dustpan out to a trash can labeled "VETO"

Economics has been defined as the study of resource allocation under scarcity. Agricultural economics, or the application of economic methods to optimize the decisions made by agricultural producers, grew to prominence around the turn of the 20th century. The field of agricultural economics can be traced back to works on land economics. Henry Charles Taylor was the greatest contributor in this period, with the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin in 1909.[5]

Another contributor, 1979 Nobel Economics Prize winner Theodore Schultz, was among the first to examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture.[6] Schultz was also instrumental in establishing econometrics as a tool for use in analyzing agricultural economics empirically; he noted in his landmark 1956 article that agricultural supply analysis is rooted in "shifting sand", implying that it was and is simply not being done correctly.[7]

One scholar in the field, Ford Runge, summarizes the development of agricultural economics as follows:

Agricultural economics arose in the late 19th century, combined the theory of the firm with marketing and organization theory, and developed throughout the 20th century largely as an empirical branch of general economics. The discipline was closely linked to empirical applications of mathematical statistics and made early and significant contributions to econometric methods. In the 1960s and afterwards, as agricultural sectors in the OECD countries contracted, agricultural economists were drawn to the development problems of poor countries, to the trade and macroeconomic policy implications of agriculture in rich countries, and to a variety of production, consumption, and environmental and resource problems.[8]

Agricultural economists have made many well-known contributions to the economics field with such models as the cobweb model,[9] hedonic regression pricing models,[10] new technology and diffusion models (Zvi Griliches),[11] multifactor productivity and efficiency theory and measurement,[12][13] and the random coefficients regression.[14] The farm sector is frequently cited as a prime example of the perfect competition economic paradigm.

In Asia, the Faculty of Agricultural Economics was established in September 1919 in Hokkaido Imperial University, Japan, as Tokyo Imperial University's School of Agriculture started a faculty on agricultural economics in its second department of agricultural science.

In the Philippines, agricultural economics was offered first by the University of the Philippines Los Baños Department of Agricultural Economics in 1919. Today, the field of agricultural economics has transformed into a more integrative discipline which covers farm management and production economics, rural finance and institutions, agricultural marketing and prices, agricultural policy and development, food and nutrition economics, and environmental and natural resource economics.

Since the 1970s, agricultural economics has primarily focused on seven main topics, according to Ford Runge: agricultural environment and resources; risk and uncertainty; food and consumer economics; prices and incomes; market structures; trade and development; and technical change and human capital.[15]

Major topics in agricultural economics edit

Agricultural environment and natural resources edit

In the field of environmental economics, agricultural economists have contributed in three main areas: designing incentives to control environmental externalities (such as water pollution due to agricultural production), estimating the value of non-market benefits from natural resources and environmental amenities (such as an appealing rural landscape), and the complex interrelationship between economic activities and environmental consequences.[16] With regard to natural resources, agricultural economists have developed quantitative tools for improving land management, preventing erosion, managing pests, protecting biodiversity, and preventing livestock diseases.[17]

Food and consumer economics edit

While at one time, the field of agricultural economics was focused primarily on farm-level issues, in recent years agricultural economists have studied diverse topics related to the economics of food consumption. In addition to economists' long-standing emphasis on the effects of prices and incomes, researchers in this field have studied how information and quality attributes influence consumer behavior. Agricultural economists have contributed to understanding how households make choices between purchasing food or preparing it at home, how food prices are determined, definitions of poverty thresholds, how consumers respond to price and income changes in a consistent way, and survey and experimental tools for understanding consumer preferences.[18]

Production economics and farm management edit

Agricultural economics research has addressed diminishing returns in agricultural production, as well as farmers' costs and supply responses. Much research has applied economic theory to farm-level decisions. Studies of risk and decision-making under uncertainty have real-world applications to crop insurance policies and to understanding how farmers in developing countries make choices about technology adoption. These topics are important for understanding prospects for producing sufficient food for a growing world population, subject to new resource and environmental challenges such as water scarcity and global climate change.[19]

Development economics edit

Development economics is broadly concerned with the improvement of living conditions in low-income countries, and the improvement of economic performance in low-income settings. Because agriculture is a large part of most developing economies, both in terms of employment and share of GDP, agricultural economists have been at the forefront of empirical research on development economics, contributing to our understanding of agriculture's role in economic development, economic growth and structural transformation. Many agricultural economists are interested in the food systems of developing economies, the linkages between agriculture and nutrition, and the ways in which agriculture interact with other domains, such as the natural environment.[20][21]

Professional associations edit

The International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) is a worldwide professional association, which holds its major conference every three years. The association publishes the journal Agricultural Economics.[22] There also is a European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), an African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) and an Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Substantial work in agricultural economics internationally is conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

In the United States, the primary professional association is the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA), which holds its own annual conference and also co-sponsors the annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA). The AAEA publishes the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.

Careers in agricultural economics edit

Graduates from agricultural and applied economics departments find jobs in many sectors of the economy: agricultural management, agribusiness, agricultural marketing, education, the financial sector, government, natural resource and environmental management, real estate, and public relations. Careers in agricultural economics require at least a bachelor's degree, and research careers in the field require graduate-level training;[23] see Masters in Agricultural Economics. A 2011 study by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce rated agricultural economics tied for 8th out of 171 fields in terms of employability.[24][25]

Literature edit

  • Evenson, Robert E. and Prabhu Pingali (eds.) (2007). Handbook of Agricultural Economics. Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Karl A. Fox (1987). "agricultural economics," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 1, pp. 55–62.
  2. ^ B. L. Gardner (2001), "Agriculture, Economics of," International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, v. 1, pp. 337-344. Abstract & outline.
  3. ^ C. Ford Runge (2008). "agricultural economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Ed., Abstract.
  4. ^ Daniel A. Sumner, Julian M. Alson, and Joseph W. Glauber (2010). "Evolution of the Economics of Agricultural Policy", American Journal of Agricultural Economics, v. 92, pp. 403-423.
  5. ^ Shaars, Marvin A. (1972). (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-02. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  6. ^ Schultz, Theodore (1968). Economic Growth and Agriculture. New York: MacGraw-Hill.
  7. ^ Schultz, Theodore W. (1956). "Reflections on Agricultural Production, Output and Supply". Journal of Farm Economics. 38 (3): 748–762. doi:10.2307/1234459. JSTOR 1234459.
  8. ^ Runge, Ford (June 2006). "Agricultural Economics: A Brief Intellectual History" (PDF). University of Minnesota Working Paper WP06-1. p. 1 (abstract).
  9. ^ Mordecai Ezekiel (February 1938). (PDF). Quarterly Journal of Economics. 52 (2): 255–280. doi:10.2307/1881734. JSTOR 1881734. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  10. ^ Waugh, F. (1928). "Quality Factors Influencing Vegetable Prices". Journal of Farm Economics. 10 (2): 185–196. doi:10.2307/1230278. JSTOR 1230278.
  11. ^ Griliches, Zvi (1957). "Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technical Change". Econometrica. 25 (4): 501–522. doi:10.2307/1905380. JSTOR 1905380. S2CID 154018839.
  12. ^ Farrell, M.J., "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, General 125 Part 2(1957): 252-267. Farrell's frequently cited application involved an empirical application of state level agricultural data
  13. ^ Vernon Wesley Ruttan, "Technological Progress in the Meatpacking Industry, 1919-47," USDA Marketing Research Report No. 59, 1954.
  14. ^ Hildreth, H.; Houck, J. (1968). "Some Estimators for a Linear Model with Random Coefficients". Journal of the American Statistical Association. 63 (322): 584–595. doi:10.2307/2284029. JSTOR 2284029.
  15. ^ Runge, Ford (June 2006). "Agricultural Economics: A Brief Intellectual History" (PDF). University of Minnesota Working Paper WP06-1. p. 15–16.
  16. ^ Catherine L. Kling, Kathleen Segerson and Jason F. Shogren (2010). "Environmental Economics: How Agricultural Economists Helped Advance the Field" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, v. 92, pp. 487-505.
  17. ^ Erik Lichtenberg, James Shortle, James Wilen and David Zilberman (2010). "Natural Resource Economics and Conservation: Contributions of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Economists" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, v. 92, pp. 469-486.
  18. ^ Laurian Unnevehr, James Eales, Helen Jensen, Jayson Lusk, Jill McCluskey and Jean Kinsey (2010). "Food and Consumer Economics" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, v. 92, pp. 506-521.
  19. ^ Jean-Paul Chavas, Robert G. Chambers and Rulon D. Pope (2010). "Production Economics and Farm Management" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, v. 92, pp. 356-375.
  20. ^ Douglas Gollin, Stephen Parente and Richard Rogerson (2002). "The Role of Agriculture in Development" The American Economic Review, v. 92, pp. 160-164.
  21. ^ C. Peter Timmer (2002). "Agriculture and economic development" Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Vol 2, Part A, pp. 1487-1546.
  22. ^ . Archived from the original on 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
  23. ^ Education Portal (2014). "Careers in Agricultural Economics: Job Options and Requirements". Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  24. ^ "What's the Value of an Agricultural Economics Degree?". Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at the Ohio State University. 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  25. ^ Anthony P. Carnevale; Jeff Strohl; Michelle Melton (2011). "What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors". Retrieved 2014-10-11.

External links edit

  • Independent research institutions
    • International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
  • Academic and professional associations
    • African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE)
    • Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Association
    • Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA)
    • Canadian Agricultural Economics Society (CAES) 2015-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
    • European Association of Agricultural Economists 2021-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
    • International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
  • Government agencies
    • U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
    • European Commission on Farming
  • Academic journals
    • American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE)
    • Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (AEPP)
  • Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics records at the University of Maryland libraries

February 15, 2024
agricultural, economics, applied, field, economics, concerned, with, application, economic, theory, optimizing, production, distribution, food, fiber, products, began, branch, economics, that, specifically, dealt, with, land, usage, focused, maximizing, crop, . Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much broader Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas having considerable overlap with conventional economics 1 2 3 4 Agricultural economists have made substantial contributions to research in economics econometrics development economics and environmental economics Agricultural economics influences food policy agricultural policy and environmental policy Contents 1 Origins 2 Major topics in agricultural economics 2 1 Agricultural environment and natural resources 2 2 Food and consumer economics 2 3 Production economics and farm management 2 4 Development economics 3 Professional associations 4 Careers in agricultural economics 5 Literature 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksOrigins edit nbsp Cartoon showing U S President Calvin Coolidge carrying the McNary Haugen Farm Relief Bill in a dustpan out to a trash can labeled VETO Economics has been defined as the study of resource allocation under scarcity Agricultural economics or the application of economic methods to optimize the decisions made by agricultural producers grew to prominence around the turn of the 20th century The field of agricultural economics can be traced back to works on land economics Henry Charles Taylor was the greatest contributor in this period with the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin in 1909 5 Another contributor 1979 Nobel Economics Prize winner Theodore Schultz was among the first to examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture 6 Schultz was also instrumental in establishing econometrics as a tool for use in analyzing agricultural economics empirically he noted in his landmark 1956 article that agricultural supply analysis is rooted in shifting sand implying that it was and is simply not being done correctly 7 One scholar in the field Ford Runge summarizes the development of agricultural economics as follows Agricultural economics arose in the late 19th century combined the theory of the firm with marketing and organization theory and developed throughout the 20th century largely as an empirical branch of general economics The discipline was closely linked to empirical applications of mathematical statistics and made early and significant contributions to econometric methods In the 1960s and afterwards as agricultural sectors in the OECD countries contracted agricultural economists were drawn to the development problems of poor countries to the trade and macroeconomic policy implications of agriculture in rich countries and to a variety of production consumption and environmental and resource problems 8 Agricultural economists have made many well known contributions to the economics field with such models as the cobweb model 9 hedonic regression pricing models 10 new technology and diffusion models Zvi Griliches 11 multifactor productivity and efficiency theory and measurement 12 13 and the random coefficients regression 14 The farm sector is frequently cited as a prime example of the perfect competition economic paradigm In Asia the Faculty of Agricultural Economics was established in September 1919 in Hokkaido Imperial University Japan as Tokyo Imperial University s School of Agriculture started a faculty on agricultural economics in its second department of agricultural science In the Philippines agricultural economics was offered first by the University of the Philippines Los Banos Department of Agricultural Economics in 1919 Today the field of agricultural economics has transformed into a more integrative discipline which covers farm management and production economics rural finance and institutions agricultural marketing and prices agricultural policy and development food and nutrition economics and environmental and natural resource economics Since the 1970s agricultural economics has primarily focused on seven main topics according to Ford Runge agricultural environment and resources risk and uncertainty food and consumer economics prices and incomes market structures trade and development and technical change and human capital 15 Major topics in agricultural economics editAgricultural environment and natural resources edit In the field of environmental economics agricultural economists have contributed in three main areas designing incentives to control environmental externalities such as water pollution due to agricultural production estimating the value of non market benefits from natural resources and environmental amenities such as an appealing rural landscape and the complex interrelationship between economic activities and environmental consequences 16 With regard to natural resources agricultural economists have developed quantitative tools for improving land management preventing erosion managing pests protecting biodiversity and preventing livestock diseases 17 Food and consumer economics edit While at one time the field of agricultural economics was focused primarily on farm level issues in recent years agricultural economists have studied diverse topics related to the economics of food consumption In addition to economists long standing emphasis on the effects of prices and incomes researchers in this field have studied how information and quality attributes influence consumer behavior Agricultural economists have contributed to understanding how households make choices between purchasing food or preparing it at home how food prices are determined definitions of poverty thresholds how consumers respond to price and income changes in a consistent way and survey and experimental tools for understanding consumer preferences 18 Production economics and farm management edit Agricultural economics research has addressed diminishing returns in agricultural production as well as farmers costs and supply responses Much research has applied economic theory to farm level decisions Studies of risk and decision making under uncertainty have real world applications to crop insurance policies and to understanding how farmers in developing countries make choices about technology adoption These topics are important for understanding prospects for producing sufficient food for a growing world population subject to new resource and environmental challenges such as water scarcity and global climate change 19 Development economics edit Development economics is broadly concerned with the improvement of living conditions in low income countries and the improvement of economic performance in low income settings Because agriculture is a large part of most developing economies both in terms of employment and share of GDP agricultural economists have been at the forefront of empirical research on development economics contributing to our understanding of agriculture s role in economic development economic growth and structural transformation Many agricultural economists are interested in the food systems of developing economies the linkages between agriculture and nutrition and the ways in which agriculture interact with other domains such as the natural environment 20 21 Professional associations editThe International Association of Agricultural Economists IAAE is a worldwide professional association which holds its major conference every three years The association publishes the journal Agricultural Economics 22 There also is a European Association of Agricultural Economists EAAE an African Association of Agricultural Economists AAAE and an Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Substantial work in agricultural economics internationally is conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute In the United States the primary professional association is the Agricultural amp Applied Economics Association AAEA which holds its own annual conference and also co sponsors the annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Association ASSA The AAEA publishes the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy Careers in agricultural economics editGraduates from agricultural and applied economics departments find jobs in many sectors of the economy agricultural management agribusiness agricultural marketing education the financial sector government natural resource and environmental management real estate and public relations Careers in agricultural economics require at least a bachelor s degree and research careers in the field require graduate level training 23 see Masters in Agricultural Economics A 2011 study by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce rated agricultural economics tied for 8th out of 171 fields in terms of employability 24 25 Literature editEvenson Robert E and Prabhu Pingali eds 2007 Handbook of Agricultural Economics Amsterdam NL Elsevier See also edit nbsp Agriculture portal nbsp Business and economics portalAgrarian law Agrarian reform Agribusiness Agricultural value chain Development economics DIRTI 5 Electrical energy efficiency on United States farms Farm crisis Food grading Food security Land economics Subsidizing Transport economics Vertical archipelagoReferences edit Karl A Fox 1987 agricultural economics The New Palgrave A Dictionary of Economics v 1 pp 55 62 B L Gardner 2001 Agriculture Economics of International Encyclopedia of the Social amp Behavioral Sciences v 1 pp 337 344 Abstract amp outline C Ford Runge 2008 agricultural economics The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics 2nd Ed Abstract Daniel A Sumner Julian M Alson and Joseph W Glauber 2010 Evolution of the Economics of Agricultural Policy American Journal of Agricultural Economics v 92 pp 403 423 Shaars Marvin A 1972 The Story of The Department of Agricultural Economics 1909 1972 PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2020 04 02 Retrieved 2009 09 17 Schultz Theodore 1968 Economic Growth and Agriculture New York MacGraw Hill Schultz Theodore W 1956 Reflections on Agricultural Production Output and Supply Journal of Farm Economics 38 3 748 762 doi 10 2307 1234459 JSTOR 1234459 Runge Ford June 2006 Agricultural Economics A Brief Intellectual History PDF University of Minnesota Working Paper WP06 1 p 1 abstract Mordecai Ezekiel February 1938 The Cobweb Theorem PDF Quarterly Journal of Economics 52 2 255 280 doi 10 2307 1881734 JSTOR 1881734 Archived from the original PDF on 2015 06 16 Retrieved 2015 03 05 Waugh F 1928 Quality Factors Influencing Vegetable Prices Journal of Farm Economics 10 2 185 196 doi 10 2307 1230278 JSTOR 1230278 Griliches Zvi 1957 Hybrid Corn An Exploration in the Economics of Technical Change Econometrica 25 4 501 522 doi 10 2307 1905380 JSTOR 1905380 S2CID 154018839 Farrell M J The Measurement of Productive Efficiency Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A General 125 Part 2 1957 252 267 Farrell s frequently cited application involved an empirical application of state level agricultural data Vernon Wesley Ruttan Technological Progress in the Meatpacking Industry 1919 47 USDA Marketing Research Report No 59 1954 Hildreth H Houck J 1968 Some Estimators for a Linear Model with Random Coefficients Journal of the American Statistical Association 63 322 584 595 doi 10 2307 2284029 JSTOR 2284029 Runge Ford June 2006 Agricultural Economics A Brief Intellectual History PDF University of Minnesota Working Paper WP06 1 p 15 16 Catherine L Kling Kathleen Segerson and Jason F Shogren 2010 Environmental Economics How Agricultural Economists Helped Advance the Field American Journal of Agricultural Economics v 92 pp 487 505 Erik Lichtenberg James Shortle James Wilen and David Zilberman 2010 Natural Resource Economics and Conservation Contributions of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Economists American Journal of Agricultural Economics v 92 pp 469 486 Laurian Unnevehr James Eales Helen Jensen Jayson Lusk Jill McCluskey and Jean Kinsey 2010 Food and Consumer Economics American Journal of Agricultural Economics v 92 pp 506 521 Jean Paul Chavas Robert G Chambers and Rulon D Pope 2010 Production Economics and Farm Management American Journal of Agricultural Economics v 92 pp 356 375 Douglas Gollin Stephen Parente and Richard Rogerson 2002 The Role of Agriculture in Development The American Economic Review v 92 pp 160 164 C Peter Timmer 2002 Agriculture and economic development Handbook of Agricultural Economics Vol 2 Part A pp 1487 1546 Agricultural Economics Archived from the original on 2018 04 27 Retrieved 2009 12 14 Education Portal 2014 Careers in Agricultural Economics Job Options and Requirements Retrieved 2014 10 11 What s the Value of an Agricultural Economics Degree Department of Agricultural Environmental and Development Economics at the Ohio State University 2014 Retrieved 2014 10 11 Anthony P Carnevale Jeff Strohl Michelle Melton 2011 What s It Worth The Economic Value of College Majors Retrieved 2014 10 11 External links editIndependent research institutions International Food Policy Research Institute IFPRI Academic and professional associations African Association of Agricultural Economists AAAE Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Association Agricultural amp Applied Economics Association AAEA Canadian Agricultural Economics Society CAES Archived 2015 05 15 at the Wayback Machine European Association of Agricultural Economists Archived 2021 03 10 at the Wayback Machine International Association of Agricultural Economists IAAE Archived 2020 10 31 at the Wayback Machine Government agencies U S Agency for International Development Bureau for Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade U S Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service European Commission on FarmingAcademic journals Agricultural Economics AgEcon American Journal of Agricultural Economics AJAE Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy AEPP Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics records at the University of Maryland libraries Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Agricultural economics amp oldid 1194361179, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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