Agriculture and Food Economics

Azzam has broad research and teaching interests, including industrial organization, microeconomics, agricultural and natural resource economics and mathematical and quantitative methods. Recent studies analyzed how environmental regulation has affected the structure of the hog industry, the ethanol mandate’s impact on corn prices, whether Nebraska’s “livestock-friendly” program has encouraged more livestock operations in Nebraska; and whether a Mediterranean diet would reduce obesity in the U.S. He has studied the impact of captive supplies on fed cattle prices, asymmetry and rigidity in farm tor detail price transmission, market transparency and market structure and the impact of anti-corporate farming laws on the cattle feeding industry in Nebraska. Updated 11/15/23

A widely published researcher, Christopher Gustafson has investigated many aspects of food choices, with recent articles on cognitive aids for food choices, exercise and snack selection; the medical and environmental costs savings of healthier diets; and how financial knowledge impacts food choices. He teaches graduate classes in behavioral and experimental economics and honors courses in agricultural economics.

Wes Peterson teaches courses in world food economics, agricultural development in low-income countries, and international agricultural trade. His research interests are in agricultural trade, economic development, and public policy. Peterson has recently made presentations on the economic implications of Brexit, trade wars, and the market facilitation program (a government program designed to compensate farmers for the negative impacts of Trump’s trade war with China). He is a fellow at the Yeutter Institute at UNL which is a collaboration between agricultural economics, economics (College Of Business), and the Law School that connects academic disciplines related to law, business and agriculture to prepare students for leadership roles in international trade and finance, support interdisciplinary research and increase public understanding of these issues.

Simanti Banerjee is interested in using experimental and behavioral economics to study problems related to environmental conservation on farmland ecosystems. Thanks to her current and former graduate students, she has been pulled into successful collaborative projects focused on decision making in risky economic environments, those where the gender of the decision maker matters and where social networks are important. She works across disciplines with ecologists, geographers, political scientists and animal scientists and is interested in combing both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques in her work. Her work on this project is funded by multiple internal and external grants. She has set up the Behavioral and Experimental Economics Lab (BEEL) at UNL. She has published in prestigious journals in the field of Applied Economics and currently serves as the Associate Editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the official journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. 11/15/23