Bio
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
Bio
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. He is a former Fulbright Fellow and a leading reviewer for academic journals in his field. Updated 11/15/23
Bio
Richard Perrin has three main areas of research: productivity within agriculture and whom it benefits; how biofuels affect agriculture, climate and the environment; and the Ogallala Aquifer’s potential to sustainably feed the burgeoning world population. In 2017, Perrin and a team of professors were granted a $5 million grant to research the psychology of water use in agriculture. Perrin is a Jim Roberts Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Updated 11/15/23
Bio
Wes Peterson teaches courses on world food economics, agricultural development in low-income countries, and agricultural policy analysis. He also directs a seminar on climate change, inequality, and the future of democratic capitalism around the world for UNL’s Honors Program. His research interests include international trade agreements, international migration, population growth, social and economic inequality, and agricultural policies. Peterson has made presentations to scholarly and community groups on agricultural policies, population growth and international migration, African political and economic development, and the causes and consequences of inequality. He is a fellow of 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. Updated 11/15/23
Bio
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