Teaching
Current Courses
Agricultural Economics 462: Economics of Agribusiness Networks
Increasing vertical and horizontal coordination among agribusiness firms has continued to change the competitive landscape of the agrifood industry in recent years. Accordingly, the capabilities and value of agribusiness firms are increasingly dependent and not only on their unique assets, but also on those of their partners. AE 462 examines why agribusiness networks form and how they influence the competitive performance of agribusiness firms.
Agricultural Economics 301: Economics and Management of Biotechnology
The material covered in this class changes from one year to another to follow the dynamic developments of biotechnology research, product development, and commercialization. However, the course consistently covers the following topics:- the fundamentals of innovation management
- innovation and industry lifecycles in biotechnology
- firm strategies and market rivalry in the biotechnology industry
- supply chain dynamics and consumer response towards biotechnology
- global regulation and impacts on biotechnology
- ethical and philosophical issues of biotechnology
Courses Taught in Previous Years
Agricultural Economics 485-2: Decision Support Systems and Tools (1996-2001)
A 3-credit graduate level course team-taught and listed jointly by the department of Agricultural Economics, the Economics department, and the Business School. Computerized support systems can be used to analyze the potential outcomes of firm decision alternatives. The course offered students hands-on experience with practical tools and methods of decision support, including mathematical modeling, decision trees, simulation, neural networks, genetic algorithms, data mining and data visualization.
Agricultural Economics 485-1: Theories of Decision Making (1996-2001)
A 3-credit graduate level course taught and listed jointly by the department of Agricultural Economics, the Economics department, and the Business School. The course covered psychological models of decision making and cognitive biases, models of individual economic rationality under certainty and risk, and various theories of group decision making.
Agricultural Economics 424: Advanced Production Economies (1990-1995)
A 3 credit Ph.D. level course in production economics and microeconometrics analysis. The course covered primal and dual, static and dynamic models of firm production behavior and performance. Various theories and techniques for measuring productivity and efficiency were also covered.
Agricultural Economics 450: Readings in Growth Economics
Several informal individual study and readings courses have been occasionally offered including (1) Dynamic Models in Agriculture (2) Topics in Productivity Analysis.