ABSTRACT As the public engagement arm of the land‐grant mission, we argue that Extension faculty in US agricultural economics departments face an identity crossroads as they struggle for institutional support. Specifically, we argue that Extension economists function as boundary‐spanning professionals within academic structures that often devalue applied engagement. Drawing on a 2025 survey of 125 members of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, this study examines how Extension is defined, practiced, and valued across career stages. Responses indicate broad conceptual agreement that Extension serves as a bridge between research and application, emphasizing stakeholder engagement, decision support, and public communication. However, faculty and graduate students differ in how they frame Extension's institutional role. Graduate students describe it as adaptable and stakeholder‐driven, while faculty anchor it in structured, metric‐based frameworks tied to the Cooperative Extension System. Quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that Extension appointments are perceived as less prestigious than research or research‐teaching roles, exposing persistent status penalties and institutional misalignment in tenure and promotion evaluation. We conclude that current university recognition systems incentivize faculty investments away from Extension and thus require structural changes to advance Extension's part of the tripartite land‐grant mission, particularly in how Extension outputs are evaluated for tenure and promotion.
ABSTRACT Rational actors constantly incorporate information into their decision‐making behavior. Since there is often a time lag between the announcement of a policy and its implementation, an important question arises: when do rational actors incorporate new information into their market behavior, at the announcement or at the implementation of a policy? We investigate this question using the easing of trade tensions between China and the United States, marked by the “Phase One” trade deal announced in December 2019 and signed in January 2020, as a considerable positive trade shock. Focusing on two key events, the announcement of substantial tariff reductions on December 13, 2019, and the signing of the trade deal in January 2020, this study examines how both the announcement and the implementation of reduced trade barriers affected agricultural companies' stock prices. We employ an event study approach using data from the MSCI ACWI Select Agriculture Producers Investable Market Index to assess market reactions. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis derived from the conceptual framework, showing that rational market actors incorporate information at the announcement stage, not only at the implementation of a policy. However, sub‐industry analyses indicate that a subset of sub‐industries drives the aggregate effect, while additional heterogeneity analysis shows that the magnitude of the effects differs across continents. These findings are relevant for policymakers, businesses, and economists seeking to understand the broader economic implications of international trade agreements in general, and trade disputes in particular.
How food prices affect diet quality is an important question to design policies that can improve the nutrition and health of all Americans. This study investigates the association between food-at-home diet quality and aggregate food prices to understand if price movements compromise nutrition, and where price-based policies could be an effective tool to improve population health. Using detailed household purchase data from 2015 to 2018, our findings suggest three insights. First, consumers make substitutions that largely preserve their given level of diet quality, though that level remains poor relative to recommendations for health. Second, we find minimal evidence of heterogeneous responsiveness to prices by diet quality or sociodemographic characteristics. Third, we find evidence that the substitutions consumers make in their protein choices when prices rise increase the healthfulness of their food baskets. Taken together, our study suggests that encouraging healthier diets probably requires more than pricing policies but that price-based policies targeted at protein may be more effective than other food groups. That we fail to find evidence of differential responsiveness of diet quality to prices suggests that universal (untargeted) policies can be recommended to improve diets across the population.JEL Classification: D12, I12, Q18
This paper investigates how lenders' costs of funds affect agricultural loan interest rates. We use a matched sample of US farm-loan data and lender-specific cost of funds, and a farm fixed effects design, to estimate pass-through, conditioning on borrower characteristics. We find modest average pass-through of funding costs to farm loan interest rates, with meaningful differences across lender types and local market conditions. Our findings suggest that borrower characteristics and common macroeconomic trends remain central to agricultural loan pricing, but lender business models and local credit market structure also shape how changes in funding costs affect farm borrowing costs.
This article examines whether Latin American countries are keeping pace with global trends in trade agreement depth or falling behind. Using 681 agreements (1970-2019), we develop the Depth Index of Trade Agreements (DITA) to weight provisions endogenously through factor analysis based on co-occurrence patterns. Results show that the Pacific Alliance and Central America lag one decade behind North American standards, whereas South America and the Caribbean lag by two to three decades. Partner selection is critical: countries negotiating extensively with developed partners tend to incorporate similar provisions into South-South agreements, suggesting North-South spillover effects. These findings suggest that regional lag reflects policy choices rather than inherent constraints.
China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 reshaped global trade, reducing U.S. demand for Mexican manufactured goods and weakening Mexico's manufacturing employment. This study estimates how this trade-induced decline affected migration and employment decisions among rural Mexicans. Using individual-level panel data from the Mexican National Rural Household Survey (ENHRUM) and a long-difference framework, we instrument manufacturing employment with regional exposure to Chinese import competition. Results show that a 10-percentage-point decline in manufacturing employment increased the probability of U.S. migration by 24 percentage points and U.S. nonagricultural employment by 17 points, with no significant effects on agricultural employment.
This study examines the ecosystem benefits of expanding hemp cultivation by assessing its impact on crop diversity. Using scenario-based simulations and fixed-effect panel regressions with county-level data in Kentucky, we find that increased hemp acreage tends to enhance crop diversity, improving water quality and bird diversity. While agricultural policies aimed at small-scale farmers align with improving farm profitability, broader ecological benefits may remain limited unless they reach a sufficient scale. Our findings suggest that hemp-induced crop diversification can generate measurable non-market economic benefits through improvements in water quality and bird diversity, highlighting the need for practical and proactive policy measures that promote smallholder participation.
Some rural counties remain dependent on agricultural or manufacturing jobs, but an increasing proportion have diversified economics. Rural counties also differ in their abilities to commute to an urban market characterized by higher wages and labor productivity. National changes in immigration and trade policies have had heterogeneous effects on rural labor markets, with counties dependent on agriculture or food processing facing rising input costs and shrinking international output markets. Increased commuting will help some rural communities adapt, while more remote counties will face outmigration, population loss, and reduced capacity to sustain public services.
ABSTRACT Sustainable agricultural practices such as cover cropping can improve soil health, water quality, and carbon sequestration, yet U.S. adoption remains limited due to economic and operational barriers. We evaluate market and economic impacts of integrating perennial groundcover into U.S. corn and soybean production under six yield and cost scenarios. Results show that impacts depend on whether yields are maintained and costs remain stable. Under the most optimistic scenario, long‐term outcomes remain close to or slightly above baseline levels. In contrast, scenarios involving yield losses or sustained cost increases generate negative economic outcomes, highlighting the importance of agronomic performance and cost control.
ABSTRACT Using an enhanced Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model (GTAP‐BIO), this study assesses how the expansion in demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the reduction in exports of agricultural products induced by trade disputes negatively affect US agriculture. It then evaluates the extent to which producing Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) from corn and soybeans could mitigate these effects. Results show that EV expansion reduces gasoline demand, suppresses corn production, lowers farm incomes, and generates idled capacity, including increases in uncultivated cropland. Export tariffs further amplify these effects. Expansion in SAF produced from corn and soybean could partially limit these consequences.
This study analyzed post-COVID-19 trends in food prices in Brazil and projected changes through 2026. Time series from the 2017/2018 Household Budget Survey, the National System of Consumer Price Indexes, and the Continuous National Household Sample Survey were analyzed using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) models. Between 2018 and 2024, prices of ultra-processed food products (UPFP) decreased by 16%, while unprocessed or minimally processed foods and culinary ingredients increased, narrowing the price gap. The nominal prices of food groups rose more than nominal household income between 2018 and 2024, particularly for unprocessed or minimally processed foods and culinary ingredients. Projections indicate that UPFP will remain the cheapest group by 2026, reinforcing barriers to healthy diets and supporting tax policies.
Large ad hoc assistance programs have returned to U.S. farm policy since 2017, operating alongside a more developed safety net built around federally subsidized crop insurance, Title I commodity programs, and standing disaster assistance. This paper reviews the renewed use of ad hoc assistance, documents its recent scale using USDA data, and examines its implications for producers and policy design. Repeated ad hoc programs may create expectations of future support while leaving uncertainty about timing, eligibility, and payment formulas. They also raise questions about crop insurance incentives, targeting, transparency, taxpayer exposure, and coordination across safety-net tools.
This paper presents an economic analysis of US agricultural policy, building on a modified version of Gardner's efficient redistribution. We argue that agricultural policy is motivated as an attempt to implement an efficient redistribution scheme that redistributes income toward farmers who, as a group, have been adversely affected by agricultural productivity growth. We show how this approach helps explain why subsidies are more common in agriculture than in other sectors of the economy. We explore how our analysis provides new and useful insights into the design and implementation of US agricultural policy.
Countries are accelerating actions to reduce food loss and waste to ensure global food security and sustainable development. Cooperatives are considered important channels for promoting the use of agricultural technologies and improving farmers' skills, which are regarded as key factors in reducing harvest losses. However, owing to data limitations, few systematic assessments of the effects of cooperative membership on food losses exist. On the basis of survey data from 703 maize growers in three major maize production areas in China, propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR) were used in this study to evaluate the effects of cooperative membership on the maize harvest losses of households. The results revealed that membership significantly reduced maize harvest losses by 68%, saving farmers an average of 238.05 kg per ha, which is worth $91.92 per ha. Membership also contributed to minor pest attacks and better working attitudes during the harvest stage. Cooperative membership is critically important for China's food security, resource conservation, and environmental protection. If the average maize harvest loss reaches the level of loss observed among member households, then it is possible to meet the food consumption needs of 13.61 million people, saving 0.74 million ha of land and 0.29 million tons of fertilizer used for maize production and reducing carbon emissions by 4.04 million tons and the water footprint by 6.43 billion m3.
This study investigates consumer food responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which affected a swath of the Southeastern U.S. in 2024. Using representative consumer survey data from six affected states, we analyze 10 distinct food responses classified into ex ante and ex post responses, and examine their associations with food insufficiency and diet quality. We find that ex ante food stockpiling is associated with a lower likelihood of food insufficiency and a higher diet quality score. Conversely, the ex post drop in food spending due to income loss is associated with a higher likelihood of food insufficiency and a lower diet quality score. We also examine heterogeneity in food responses across sociodemographic groups. Our results suggest that targeted support for families with children and low-income households warrant consideration.
Providing nutritious meals in institutional settings with financial constraints, such as military dining facilities, is challenging. The US Department of War (DoW) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) collaborated to modernize the Basic Daily Food Allowance (BDFA) using an optimization model that incorporates service members' consumption patterns and nutritional standards. The model estimated optimal diets for four demographic groups, producing costs similar to the 2019 BDFA but with greater food variety. This first application of the USDA Food Plan to military purchase data demonstrates a flexible approach for improving cost estimates in military and other institutional food programs.
Smallholder farmers in developing countries face the twin challenges of improving productivity and managing agricultural risks. One emerging response is outsourcing production tasks to specialized service providers. Using plot-level data from rice farms in Jiangsu Province, China, and an endogenous treatment-regression model, this study examines the effects of outsourcing on yields and production risks. Results show that outsourcing increases rice yields by nearly 3%, reduces yield volatility, and lowers the probability of crop failure. These benefits arise from greater access to mechanized services, the substitution of machinery for labor, and more efficient use of inputs. However, outcomes vary by type: machinery-intensive outsourcing reduces risk, whereas labor-intensive outsourcing can exacerbate it in weak service markets. Gains are greatest on larger and more fertile plots, underscoring the importance of policies that support mechanization and competitive service markets.
Presenting pesticide dosages in range formats (e.g., 10-40 g) is presumed to offer farmers flexibility to adjust dosage application based on pest or disease pressure, and thereby facilitating precise use. However, this conventional practice may unintentionally encourage pesticide overuse. Based on a lab-in-the-field experiment, this study finds that approximately 65% of farmers disregard the minimum dosage when exposed to range-based labels, anchoring instead on the upper bound. A nudge-based label design, featuring reference points and brief explanatory cues, can significantly reduce pesticide use without restricting farmers' autonomy. These findings reveal both the hidden risks and promising potential of label-based interventions, suggesting that thoughtfully designed labels can serve as a low-cost, scalable policy tool for mitigating excessive chemical use problem in agriculture.
The United States spends billions annually on crop insurance premium subsidies, yet the prevailing distance-based guarantee design unintentionally rewards risk-taking by linking subsidies to yield variability. We consider a simple redesign: define guarantees in terms of probability so that coverage reflects a consistent likelihood of indemnity. Using US data, this probability-based approach would reallocate about $3.3 billion in annual subsidies from high-risk to low-risk production, reducing regional disparities by two-thirds without changing total subsidies. Because most publicly subsidized crop insurance programs around the world share this structure, adopting probability-based guarantees could help realign agricultural production toward more resilient and sustainable regions and practices.
This study examines the main drivers influencing the adoption of two types of precision farming technologies in the viticultural sector: Decision Support Systems (DSSs) and Variable Rate Technologies (VRTs). We apply a partial proportional odds model and find that socio-demographic characteristics are not significant determinants of adoption, whereas farm structural features and a general positive attitude toward technology significantly increase the likelihood of uptake. Environmental concern plays a role only with respect to the intention to adopt, but not in explaining actual adoption behavior. Moreover, farmers' perceptions of the usefulness of digital technologies and the difficulties associated with their use emerge as key factors shaping adoption intentions among non-adopters. These results suggest that targeted training initiatives and strengthened advisory services could play a crucial role in fostering the diffusion of precision farming technologies in viticulture.
