Keeping Track
April 2010
Calendar of Events:
April 9 |
Last day for grad students to schedule their final |
Friday, April 16, 2010
36th Annual James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture
Ian Sheldon, The Ohio State University
“Climate Policy and Carbon Tariffs:
Some New Wine Mixed with Old Wine in New Green Bottles?”
Recent proposals in the US and Europe to apply “carbon tariffs” have highlighted the connection between climate policy and international trade. In this presentation I will outline and discuss the key economic and legal issues relating to the application of carbon tariffs in the context of climate policy. The overall conclusion I draw is that the connection between trade and environmental policy is really not that new, having been discussed in considerable detail since the early-1990s, and reflected in an extensive economics literature. In addition, legal concerns about carbon tariffs are not particularly new, although only a WTO ruling on their presence alongside climate policies will resolve any legal uncertainty. However, there are some issues concerning carbon tariffs that present additional layers of complexity in terms of their determination and implementation.
Apex Award Winners: Jason Henderson, Warren Preston, Kim Emshwiller and Evelyn Ott.
Snyder Festivities are from 1:45-4:30. Krannert Drawing Room for Dessert Reception and Awards Ceremony, 1:45-3:30,with the Lecture being held in the Krannert Auditorium from 3:30-4:30.
Grad Student Appreciation Breakfast will be held at Coffee Hour on April 16th, 2010. Grad Student Trivia Winner will be announced.
Congratulations and Names in the News:
Janet Ayres was inducted into the Carroll County Agriculture Hall of Fame at the Ag Association’s annual dinner on March 8. She was recognized for her work in rural development and contributions to Carroll County.
Kendra Arrington won 1st place at the MANRRS Conference in the Graduate Oral Research Contest for her study: An Evaluation of Consumer Segments for Farmers’ Markets in Indiana and Illinois. Dr. Jennifer Dennis is her advisor.
George Patrick was elected to a three year term as Director of the Land Grant University Tax Education Foundation, Inc.
AP staff nominated for promotion this year were granted promotions by the Dean’s AP Advancement Committee: Rhonda Bairaktaris, Harlan Day, Jeff Greiner, Jeff Sanson and Debby Weber.
Thought You Would Like to Know:
Janet Ayres introduced two visiting scholars from France, Audrey Fournier and Elise Simon, both masters’ students at Paris Agrotechnology. They will be interviewing farmers in Cass County and conducting research regarding the expansion of crops and ethanol production and changes to policy.
Otto Doering is serving as Chair of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Nitrogen Committee which met in DC in March.
A Forum on the Relevance of Chinese Economy Development jointly organized by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University and the Chinese Economists Society on March 4-5, West Lafayette, IN. http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/conference/ About 100 participants from academia, industry, and government from local, other states, as well as China contribute to the keynote seminar, panel session, roundtable session and selected paper sessions. Topics covered economic development, natural resource, finance, trade, market, and study abroad education. Four graduate students from the China research group with Dr. Holly Wang, three from GTAP with Dr. Tom Hertel, and one with Dr. Steve Wu have presented their research papers.
Massoud Karshenas, Professor of Economics at the University of London and Adjunct Faculty here in the department, will be here on sabbatical from March – June 2010 working with Tom Hertel in GTAP. “In this period I will be working on household budget surveys of Iran, particularly interested in variance estimation in complex surveys. I hope to be able to extend this work to lsms surveys by the World Bank to investigate the precision of their poverty estimates and variances of other complex disaggregated variables based on household surveys”
Bruce Erickson is teaching another round of Fundamentals in Applied Agronomy, an online course that he developed for the American Society of Agronomy. The twelve-week course is offered twice annually, and follows the objectives developed for the International Certified Crop Adviser program. At present 86 individuals are enrolled, representing 28 states and Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Zimbabwe. For more information see https://www.agronomy.org/fundamentals-in-applied-agronomy.
Undergraduate News:
Three of our undergraduate students, Jared Barnard, Caleb Neier, and Brianne Stauffer received the First, Second and Honorable Mention Awards, respectively, for the Study Abroad in China Project Poster Competition, at the Forum on the Relevance of Chinese Economy Development jointly organized by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University and the Chinese Economists Society on March 4-5, West Lafayette, IN.
Students in the Department of Agricultural Economics are leading the College of Agriculture as they were elected to all five executive positions in the College of Agriculture Council. The 2010 Ag Council Executive Committee includes: Kelly Clark, Leslie Byers, Emily Hirsch, Benjamin Stoller, and Ben Wolff.
Jenna Langley (Walton, IN), junior in Agricultural Economics, was recently selected to serve on the 2010 Ag Futures of America (AFA) Student Advisory Team. As part of the team, she will visit Kansas City once/month helping the AFA Staff plan the 2010 AFA Leaders Conference.
News from Center for Food and Agricultural Business:
23rd Annual ASTA Management Academy Rich with Learning and Networking
From March 2-5, 53 seed industry professionals from 15 states, Mexico, and Austria challenged themselves to think strategically and expand their knowledge base at the 23rd annual ASTA Management Academy. Jerry Monk, ASTA chairman and president of Warner Seeds in Hereford, Texas, served as an executive guest speaker. Faculty members Allan Gray, Larry DeBoer, Frank Dooley, Mike Boehlje, Scott Downey, and Freddie Barnard offered sessions during the program, along with Professor Larry Lad from Butler University. The program was rated 4.57 out of 5.00. Calling the program a “great conference” and a “very good use of his time,” one participant said, “I learned a tremendous amount and look forward to using the information in my daily activities.”
Purdue Teams with Land O’Lakes to Transform Industry Leaders
Center staff led 43 top ag industry leaders from the U.S. to Argentina during their fifth of seven sessions of the Land O’Lakes Executive Agribusiness Program (LEAP). Faculty members Allan Gray and Scott Downey served as instructors for the international residency, and Jane Anderson and Danielle Quirk managed the program in-country. Amber Rankin, MS graduate student, also participated. The center credits their partnership with the University of Austral for a residency program that was conducted “according to plan” – except for one brief bus breakdown in a harvested corn field, in which the U.S. participants thoroughly enjoyed giving advice to the drivers/mechanics and taking in the vast landscape of the humid pampas region for about a half-hour.
The goals of the international residency were to learn about general business strategies of the Argentine companies, understand the environment in which agribusinesses operate, and to learn about the demographics of Argentine producers and their buying behaviors. During the March 14–20, 2010, residency, LEAP participants met with Argentine agribusiness managers in Buenos Aires and Rosario and discussed opportunities and challenges in their respective countries. The group discovered that they were more alike than different, but the differences were very important. Exploring these differences and the reasons for them was a key focus of the residency.
The program schedule included visits, tours, and interactive discussions with several key agribusiness companies of Argentina, including the Association de Cooperatives Argentinas (the oldest national cooperative in Argentina) and a visit to a cooperative retailer in the small town of Conesa, where the challenge of recruiting qualified professionals to the small town environment was found to be a common challenge that the group enjoyed discussing. The LEAP group also spent time with managers of Pioneer, John Deere, Rosario Board of Trade, and Terminal 6 (a partnership of Bunge and AGD). Cultural visits included a morning at Linier’s Cattle Market, where over half of Buenos Aires’ meat supply is sourced; an afternoon at Agrouranga Farm, with nearly 30,000 acres under cultivation and a tie to Ag Alumni Seed for their branded popcorn business; a dinner and informal conversation with more than 15 agribusiness managers of Rosario; and an exciting tango and folkloric show.
New class coming together for MS-MBA
Applications are now being accepted for the MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management. The program is open to professionals with a minimum of three years work experience, and a GMAT score is required to apply. If you know of anyone who may be interested in this dual-degree, distance-delivered program, contact Luanna DeMay, program manager, at luanna@purdue.edu or 494-4270. To learn more about the program, visit www.agecon.purdue.edu/agribusiness.
Upcoming 2010 programs
June 3-4 Sales Management and Leadership
June 10-11 Precision Selling
Sept. 14-16 Structuring Decision: Innovating through Turbulence
To learn more or refer a colleague to one of our seminars, visit www.agecon.purdue.edu/cab
News from Indiana Council for Economic Education (ICEE):
News from the Indiana Council for Economic Education: This spring, ICEE will again sponsor the statewide Economics Challenge Competition. This challenging and motivating competition gives teams of four high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge on a broad array of economics topics. Students first take written tests on micro, macro, and international economics. Based on test scores, the top two teams face off in a Quiz Bowl round. Students compete simultaneously at three Indiana sites and participate in one of two divisions: Adam Smith or David Ricardo. In past years, Indiana schools have fared well, with two national championships. Each year about 45 – 50 teams take part in the competition. This year the Economics Challenge will take place on April 13. For more information, see www.econed-in.org/econchallenge.asp.
Travel, Speeches, Presented Papers:
Hertel, T.W. and J. Beckman “Implications of Biofuels for Commodity Market Price Volatility”, presented to NBER Agricultural Economics Workshop, Cambridge, Mass., March 5, 2010.
Hertel, T.W. “Climate Change, Agriculture and Poverty”, presented to Conference on the Future of Agriculture in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, February 24, 2010.
Hertel, T.W. “The Distributional Impact of Climate Policy: Discussion”, Conference on Climate Policy Impacts, Resources for the Future, January 20-21, 2010.
Yunguang Chen and Associate Professor Holly Wang presented their paper, “The Impact of the Average Crop Revenue Election on Farmers’ Risk Management and on Government Expenditure” at the SCC76 Multi-State Conference on March 18-20, 2010 at Destin, FL.
Publications:
Hertel, T., A. Golub, A. Jones, M. O’Hare, R. Plevin and D. Kammen (2010) “Global Land Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Impacts of US Maize Ethanol: Estimating Market-Mediated Responses”, BioScience 60(3):223-231.
Tyner, Wallace E., and Daniela Viteri. “Implications of Blending Limits on the US Ethanol and Biofuels Markets.” Biofuels 1(2) (2010), pp.251-53.
Going West in the European Union: Migration and EU Enlargement (2010) Benoit Delbecq and Brigitte Waldorf, West Lafayette: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, Working Paper #10–04.
High Skilled Immigrant Recruitment and the Global Economic Crisis: The Effects of Immigration Policies (2010) Natasha Duncan and Brigitte Waldorf, West Lafayette: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, Working Paper #10–01.
Narayanan, Badri G., Hertel, Thomas W. and Horridge, J. Mark (2010). “Disaggregated Data and Trade Policy Analysis: The Value of Linking Partial and General Equilibrium Models”. Economic Modeling 27(2):755-766.
Wu, Steven Y., “Producer Protection Legislation and Termination Damages in the Presence of Contracting Frictions”, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 92, No. 1, January 2010.
Canchi, Devendra, Ning Li, Ken Foster, Paul V. Preckel, Allan Schinckel, and Brian Richert, “Optimal Control of Desensitizing Inputs: The Case of Paylean”, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 92, No. 1, January 2010.
Klaiber, H. Allen and Matthew T. Holt, “The Role of Theoretical Restrictions in Forecasting with Inverse Demand Models, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 92, No. 1, January 2010.
Mayen, Carlos D., Joseph V. Balagtas, and Corinne E. Alexander, “Technology Adoption and Technical Efficiency: Organic and Conventional Dairy Farms in the United States”. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 92, No. 1, January 2010
Internship Opportunities:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/careers/intern_research.htm
http://www.fsdinternational.org/intlopps/programs/internships1
http://www.fcnl.org/young/intern.htm
http://www.uschamber.com/careers/internships/default
http://www.unausa.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKRI8MPJpF&b=317257
Job Announcements:
University of Connecticut: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
University of Connecticut: Food System Management
National Center for Appropriate Technology: Three sustainable agriculture specialists
The Ohio State University: Department Head
ERS: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AboutERS/Employment/OpportunitiesPage.htm
Career and Job Sites on the Internet:
| Purdue | http://www.purdue.edu/jobs |
| AAEA Job Posting | http://www.aaea.org/classifieds/ |
| Academic Employment Network | http://www.academploy.com/ |
| Academic Position Network | http://www.apnjobs.com/ |
| Agriculture Career Connection | http://www.ag-biz.com/ |
| Community Colleges, misc | http//www.aacc.nche.edu/ |
| Chronicle of Higher Education | http://chronicle.com/jobs/ |
| Congressional Budget Office | http://www.cbo.gov |
| Education Jobs Page | http://www.nationjob.com/education |
| Employment/Resume Posting | http://galaxy.einet.net/GJ/employment.html |
| EPA | http://jobs.quickhire.com/scripts/epa.exe |
| Foreign Ag Service | http://www.fao.org/VA/vac_en.htm |
| Government Career | http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ |
| National Job Bank | http://www.jobs.joe.org |
| USDA, Ag Research Service | http://www.ars.usda.gov/careers/docs.htm?docid=11797 |
For further information, see the Job Posting File in Room 651
Contact Lou Ann Baugh concerning information to be included in future issues of KT
Keeping Track Monthly Newsletter Archive