The class is split in two halves. I cover supply in the first five weeks and Tim Beatty covers demand in the second five weeks. This page contains material from my part of the class.

I emphasize empirical work, but I do cover some applied theory. We start big and end small; the first topic is global agricultural supply and the last is field-level supply.

Syllabus:  2020,  2019

Blog Assignment

I post weekly Ag Data News articles on my website that are loosely related to agricultural data. The articles are 600-1000 words with 3-4 figures. Your assignment is to write one of these articles.

Rules:       

1. the topic must be something to do with agricultural supply
2. you may work with a co-author
3. you must provide code to generate any graphs that you create
4. you may include graphs created by others (e.g., from papers, data portals such as FAOSTAT or my data apps.)

In 2020-2022, I published 8 student articles in Ag Data News. Follow this link and scroll to the bottom to read them.

Paper Assignments

These assignments require the students to do some empirical analysis to replicate and extend a paper, and to write up their work as though they aim to publish it in an academic journal. The papers must not be more than five single-spaced pages (including tables and figures). I do not want the paper to read like a diary, i.e. “first I did this, then I did that”. Rather, I want them to tell a story, including an outline of the question they are asking, a discussion of the empirical method, the results, and a conclusion. A reader should be able to duplicate the analysis. 

1. Global food commodity supply

• Assignment (PDF)
• Basis of assignment:  Roberts, M.J., and W. Schlenker (2013) “Identifying Supply and Demand Elasticities of Agricultural Commodities: Implications for the US Ethanol Mandate,” American Economic Review 103: 2265–2295.

2. Climate change and agriculture (panel approach)

• Assignment (PDF)
• Basis of assignment:  Fisher, A., M. Hanemann, M. Roberts, and W. Schlenker (2012) “The economic impacts of climate change: evidence from agricultural output and random fluctuations in weather: comment,” American Economic Review 102:3749–3760.

3. Climate change and agriculture (Ricardian approach)

• Assignment (PDF)
• Basis of assignment:  Ortiz-Bobea, A. (2020) “The Role of Nonfarm Influences in Ricardian Estimates of Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Agriculture,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 102(3): 934-959.

4. Field-level supply

• Assignment (PDF)
• Basis of assignment:  Hendricks, N.P, A. Smith, and D. Sumner (2015) “Crop Supply Dynamics and the Illusion of Partial Adjustment,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 96(5): 1469-1491.