COVID-19 Research and Resources
Press Releases
AMES, Iowa – According to a study by Iowa State University researchers, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused high school completion rates in the United States to increase considerably in 2020 compared to previous years.
Display Full News Release ↓AMES, Iowa – According to a study by Iowa State University researchers, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused high school completion rates in the United States to increase considerably in 2020 compared to previous years.
The paper’s authors, Kunwon Ahn and Jun Yeong Lee, graduate students, and John V. Winters, associate professor, in the ISU Department of Economics, studied multiple factors related to the pandemic to determine their effect on high school completion rates.
The COVID-19 pandemic created devastating losses of health, life, and economic opportunities. Widespread closures of businesses and schools to mitigate the spread of the virus triggered a severe recession in 2020 and the highest rate of unemployment since at least 1948. Employment opportunities decreased especially for young workers.
Starting in March, most schools quickly shifted to an online mode of teaching to finish the school year early. Previous research has shown significantly worse learning outcomes for students taking online courses as compared to face-to-face instruction.
“There is a lot of evidence that young people don’t respond as well to online learning, so there was some concern that school closures in the spring could have reduced student performance and lowered graduation rates for high school seniors,” said Winters. “However, we find that high school completion rates actually went up.”
The study drew on individual level-data from the U.S. Current Population Survey (CPS) and also examined other contributing factors to high school completion rates, such as local infection rates and state policy. The analysis found that completion rates were most affected by local employment conditions, with the largest increases in high school completion rates in areas of large employment losses.
“The recession prevented many young people from being employed, but it allowed high school seniors to focus on their schooling and make something positive out of a bad situation,” explained Winters. “Of course, we still do not know about the longer run effects. If students learned less during the school closures, it may make them less prepared for college or the workforce down the road.”
The full working paper, which received no funding related to this work, is available on the Iowa State University Digital Repository.
Contacts:
John V. Winters, Department of Economics, 515-294-6263; winters1@iastate.edu
Deborah Gruca, Communications, Department of Economics, 515-294-9849; dgruca@iastate.edu
Ames, IA – A new grant will allow Iowa State University researchers to study how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the U.S. food supply chain with the goal of finding short- and long-term solutions to increase resiliency against future disruptions.
Display Full News Release ↓Ames, IA – A new grant will allow Iowa State University researchers to study how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the U.S. food supply chain with the goal of finding short- and long-term solutions to increase resiliency against future disruptions.
Keri Jacobs, an associate professor of economics at Iowa State, said that the pandemic led to major disruptions in a number of agricultural industries.
“These disruptions were unique because we didn’t experience a shock to the supply of agricultural products—it was largely a shock to our processing capacity through reduced labor,” she said. Jacobs noted that the lack of labor was especially problematic in agricultural industries, as the processing capacity and the entire system was built based on the known biological processes for products, like eggs, milk, beef, and pork.
Furthermore, as the pandemic first spread, restaurants, bars, and schools closed, quickly changing consumers’ food consumption habits and needs, which created further disruptions in the supply chain. “Plants couldn’t make the switch quickly enough to meet the change in demand and had inventory prepared for a market that no longer existed,” Jacobs said.
Consumers staying home en masse also drove down the need for gasoline, and therefore ethanol, which had consequences that fed back into food industries. “Carbon dioxide and distillers grains are by-products in ethanol production and are both important inputs in other supply chains,” Jacobs said. She noted that distillers grains are used to feed livestock, and carbon dioxide is a preservative and key input in packaged liquid products. “When ethanol demand tanked, so did the production of those two by-products. So, in this case, the disruptions seeped into other food processing sectors,” she said.
To help understand how and why COVID-19 disrupted the agricultural supply chain the ways it did, and to help prevent similar things from happening in the future, Jacobs will lead a newly-funded USDA study. The project, “Agricultural Supply Chain Disruptions: Costs and Mitigation Strategies to Enhance Resiliency of Ag Supply Chains” aims to enhance the resiliency of the beef, pork, dairy, and egg supply chains in the Midwest in the face of future disruptions and was recently awarded a two-year, $458,000 National Institute of Food and Agriculture COVID-19 Rapid Response Program grant. The grant is part of more than $14 million in USDA funding announced to help study the most critical issues facing consumers during the pandemic.
The project research team also includes five other Iowa State faculty: John Crespi, Chad Hart and Dermot Hayes, professors of economics; Bobby Martens, associate professor of supply chain management; and Lee Schulz, associate professor of economics.
“Our short-term focus is on developing data visualization tools and forensic price- and volume-based decision tools,” Jacobs said. The visualization tools will help agricultural producers and firms recognize and adapt to stressors in the supply chain system, such as future COVID-19 outbreaks. “We don’t know whether there will be another type of disruption similar to COVID-19, but the COVID-19 disruptions have the potential to flare up again this fall and winter or be compounded with flu season,” she said.
The long-term goal of the research is to explore the risk-return tradeoff in supply system changes to improve future resiliency during disruptions.
“We will, among other things, explore potential risk-mitigating strategies that firms in the beef, pork, egg, and dairy supply chains can use to reduce the impact of the current pandemic or future similar disruptions,” Jacobs said. “Fundamentally, this disruption made it very apparent where we can benefit from better information, and that is what our project aims to do—generate more informed and synthesized market information to aid supply chains.”
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
Keri Jacobs, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-6780; kljacobs@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-3809; nmcook@iatsate.edu
Ames, IA – As restaurants across the U.S. have started re-opening their dining rooms for service, they’re now facing another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic—huge numbers of employees are seeking employment in other industries or leaving the workforce altogether.
Display Full News Release ↓Ames, IA – As restaurants across the U.S. have started re-opening their dining rooms for service, they’re now facing another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic—huge numbers of employees are seeking employment in other industries or leaving the workforce altogether.
“Labor supply has decreased at least somewhat in every industry because some workers may get sick or they may leave the labor market to take care of children displaced from school, etc.” said John Winters, an associate professor of economics at Iowa State University. “While it was expected, closures and reduced consumer demand severely impacted restaurant industry employment—it lost roughly five million jobs from April 2019 to April 2020.”
Winters is an author of a new Iowa State study, “COVID-19 Employment Status Impacts on Food Sector Workers,” along with Seung Jin Cho and Jun Yeong Lee, both Ph.D. students in Iowa State’s Department of Economics.
The purpose of their study, however, wasn’t to find the overall number of jobs lost in each sector, it was to examine current trends in same-industry employment. That is, they wanted to look at whether food-sector workers are leaving their current jobs for employment in different industries, or possibly just leaving the workforce altogether.
“Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, typically more than 80% of workers continued employment in the same industry, but we’re definitely seeing those numbers go down in some food-related sectors,” Winters said. “In April 2019, just over 83% of previous restaurant workers were still employed in the restaurant industry. In April 2020, only about 43% of previous restaurant workers were employed at work in the restaurant industry, which is a significant drop.”
The study also examined same-industry employment in food manufacturing, grocery stores, and crop and animal production. While the restaurant industry was hardest hit by workers leaving the industry altogether, the food manufacturing and grocery store industries are seeing the same trend.
“Between April 2019 and April 2020, the number of previous workers still employed in food manufacturing decreased by about eleven percentage points and the number of previous workers still employed in grocery stores decreased by just over seven percentage points,” Winters said.
Unlike restaurants, the loss in grocery store employees isn’t due to decreased labor demand. “Labor demand in the grocery store industry has remained strong,” Winters said. “When previous grocery store workers exit the labor force it is very unlikely to be because of reduced labor demand. We also looked at hiring of new workers not previously employed in food manufacturing and grocery stores and didn’t find significant evidence of increased hiring, which suggests these industries may struggle to build and retain an effective workforce,” he said.
Winters said it’s very difficult to disentangle the various motives that lead to a reduced labor supply, but their data showed some expected general trends, such as older workers, less-educated workers, and women with children being more likely to leave the workforce. “Eligibility for unemployment insurance, including expanded benefits from the CARES Act, also reduced labor supply,” he said.
Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be driving laborers away from certain industries and high-infection areas. “Workers have not only left their previous industry, but also decided not to look for work in areas with high COVID-19 infection rates,” Winters said.
The only U.S. food sectors examined in the study that didn’t show a reduction in same-industry employment were crop and animal production. However, Winters said that it’s possible that things may look different for those industries in the next few months as the U.S. continues through the primary growing season and fall harvest approaches.
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
John Winters, 515-294-6263; winters1@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, 515-294-3809; nmcook@iastate.edu
AMES, Iowa – Researchers from Iowa State University and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, focused on how people underestimate the speed at which disease spreads in a pandemic, which increases their risk of infection.
Display Full News Release ↓AMES, Iowa – Researchers from Iowa State University and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, focused on how people underestimate the speed at which disease spreads in a pandemic, which increases their risk of infection.
Research on the exponential-growth prediction bias (EGPB) was published in arXiv.org. The research in behavioral psychology and economics documented how behavioral biases, such as optimism and overconfidence may compromise the perception of risk.
Researchers Ritwik Banerjee, associate professor and Priyama Majumdar, research assistant, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; and Joydeep Bhattacharya, Iowa State professor of economics, used data from a global survey about people’s perception. The errors in perception are key to understanding their compliance with widely recommended safety precautions of frequent hand washing, use of hand sanitizers, facemasks, and social distancing/self-quarantine.
“People tend to think of growth as something that happens at a constant rate,” said Bhattacharya. “But in the early stages of an infectious disease outbreak, the disease spreads at a non-constant rate, often increasing as time unfolds. This makes a big difference when it comes to people’s prediction of how likely it is they will catch the disease.”
The study found evidence of rampant prediction biases, which are a significant predictor of lower safety compliance, less disagreement with violations of safety measures, and a greater satisfaction with the government’s response to the pandemic. It also found that disease trajectory data presented as raw numbers, as opposed to the common “flatten the curve” style graphs, could reduce the prediction bias and lower people’s risk perception and increase compliance behavior.
Contacts:
Ritwik Banerjee; ritwikbanerjee@iimb.ac.in
Joydeep Bhattacharya; joydeep@iastate.edu
Ames, IA – On January 15, the U.S. and China signed a partial trade agreement—the phase one deal—to reduce the economic pressures of the trade war that started in 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, progress on the deal has been slow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has slowed global demand and disrupted trade, and due to China diversifying away from U.S. agricultural imports because of the trade war.
Display Full News Release ↓Ames, IA – On January 15, the U.S. and China signed a partial trade agreement—the phase one deal—to reduce the economic pressures of the trade war that started in 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, progress on the deal has been slow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has slowed global demand and disrupted trade, and due to China diversifying away from U.S. agricultural imports because of the trade war.
However, a new study from the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University, “China’s Agricultural Imports under the Phase One Deal: Is Success Possible?,” finds that China is working in earnest to meet trade targets, and that current market forces and price differences for key commodities might allow it to meet trade obligations.
Based on first quarter exports and the usual seasonal patterns of corn and soybean trade, the study predicts China will import $18.6 billion in U.S. agricultural and related products in 2020. The trade target amount is $36.5 billion, which means that if China is to meet the goal, it will have to increase its U.S. imports later this year.
Historically, China increases its U.S. agricultural imports after corn and soybeans are harvested in the fall, but there are some market signs they are increasing imports now, possibly to help hit upcoming trade goals.
“Over the past few weeks there was an out-of-season uptick in corn and soybean export sales, which suggests that China is trying to make its target,” said Dermot Hayes, a professor of economics at Iowa State and a co-author of the study. Wendong Zhang, an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State, and Xi He, a postdoctoral researcher at CARD, both authored the study with Hayes.
“This cautious optimism is supported by large price differences between key commodities in the U.S. and China documented in the report, as well as China’s recent decision to rebuild national inventories of corn and soybeans,” Hayes said.
China has decided to add 20 million tons of corn to its national inventory, but projections show domestic production falling short of consumption by 15 million tons this year, so it’s likely that China will import more than its 7.2 million ton annual import quota. That could be really good news for the U.S., as the U.S. and Ukraine are the only large exporters eligible to send corn to China.
The uptick in soybean sales is good news for U.S. farmers as well. In recent years, Brazil has accounted for an increasing share of China’s soybean imports. “Brazil’s projected soybean production in 2019/20 was more than 122 million metric tons, up from 115 million tons in 2018/19,” said Zhang. “U.S. market analysts are especially worried, as Brazil sent record monthly soybean exports to China in April and the peak season for U.S. soybean exports won’t start until close to fall harvest.”
On the other hand, a recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Brazil and trade disruptions due to flooding have caused Chinese traders to consider U.S. corn and soybeans at a time they would normally turn to Brazil.
U.S. pork producers have already seen China accepting a record amount of imports in 2020. “From January to April, China imported a record-level 291,609 metric tons of U.S. pork, which is 300% higher than the amount it imported from January to April in 2017,” Zhang said.
Zhang says that the EU’s projected pork production will increase slightly in 2020, but China’s import demand for pork is surging and they will very likely purchase record amounts of U.S. pork. China’s willingness to buy more U.S. pork goes beyond the trade agreement—its domestic producers have been forced to cull tens of millions of pigs due to African swine fever, a highly virulent and deadly pig disease.
“ASF cases are much lower now, but there is no vaccine yet,” Hayes said. “ASF risks are disproportionately higher for small-scale farms that lack strong biosecurity measures, and ‘backyard’ production accounts for about 20% of China’s pork production.”
The trade deal further increases China’s obligations for U.S. agricultural products to $43.5 billion in 2021. Zhang said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought global trade levels down significantly in 2020, but regardless of what happens with the pandemic, they will be extending their study into 2021 trade. “We didn’t examine the 2021 outlook because the phase two deal terms could possibly change following the November elections. However, as of right now, the 2021 targets will be challenging for China to meet,” he said.
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
Wendong Zhang, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-2536; wdzhang@iastate.edu
Dermot Hayes, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-6185; dhayes@iastate.edu
Xi He, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development; xihe@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-3809; nmcook@iastate.edu
AMES, Iowa – Tracking COVID-19’s economic impacts, especially in the state of Iowa, is now possible thanks to resources on a new web hub.
Display Full News Release ↓AMES, Iowa – Tracking COVID-19’s economic impacts, especially in the state of Iowa, is now possible thanks to resources on a new web hub.
The webpage, “COVID-19 Pandemic: Research and Resources,” developed by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development and the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, examines the pandemic’s impacts on the economy, agriculture and business across local, regional and global economies.
“Right now, you can track unemployment. You can see changes in Iowans’ mobility by county since the lockdown began and track changes in their movement patterns as the lockdown lifts. You can see economists answering questions from Iowans who have real concerns about their businesses, and more,” said CARD Director John Crespi, who led the creation of the web hub with Department of Economics Chair Joshua Rosenbloom, as well as both units’ staff and researchers.
The hub includes graphs, tables and maps visually representing the scale and extent of the pandemic's impact and features related press releases and publications, such as “The Impact of COVID-19 on Iowa’s Corn, Soybean, Ethanol, Pork, and Beef Sector” released in April. It also offers an interactive tool to estimate total losses to Iowa’s corn, soybean and ethanol markets due to COVID-19.
“I think it is a very good start to an important project,” Rosenbloom said. “It offers resources that can help producers, businesses and policymakers make informed decisions now and plan for the future during this unprecedented time in our history.”
The web hub’s hot topics include Wendong Zhang and Nick Paulsen’s presentation on COVID-19’s impact on US-China trade. Zhang is an Iowa State assistant professor and Extension economist, and Paulsen is a University of Illinois associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics.
The site also shares relevant queries from Iowans who contact the Department of Economics’ Ask an Economist service. Current questions examine beef prices, the potential devaluation of the dollar, and how to start a pandemic-related business.
“Keep checking back to see what’s new,” Crespi said. “We plan to continue adding resources in upcoming weeks and expect weekly updates to corn, soybean, ethanol, pork and beef markets that will automatically adjust as new data become available.”
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
John Crespi, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-1699; jcrespi@iastate.edu
Joshua Rosenbloom, 515-294-1257; jlrosenb@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-3809; nmcook@iastate.edu
Ames, IA – As the COVID-19 outbreak has quickly spread across the globe, it has infected more than three million people and killed over 218,000, as of the time of writing. Worldwide, governments have taken steps to reduce COVID-19’s spread, including mandating social distancing policies and closing nonessential businesses. These policies slow the spread, but they restrict economic output and demand.
Display Full News Release ↓Ames, IA – As the COVID-19 outbreak has quickly spread across the globe, it has infected more than three million people and killed over 218,000, as of the time of writing. Worldwide, governments have taken steps to reduce COVID-19’s spread, including mandating social distancing policies and closing nonessential businesses. These policies slow the spread, but they restrict economic output and demand.
To help understand the economic impact of the outbreak, and the policies used to stop its spread, on China’s economy, researchers at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University have created a database that shows how impacts propagated across China’s provinces and economic sectors, both during the outbreak and when most of China began returning to work.
China was the first country to confirm a case of COVID-19, and one of the first countries to implement social distancing and lockdown policies to contain its spread. Economic researchers have kept a close eye on China, as it is not only the world’s most populous country, but the world’s second-largest economy, based on nominal gross domestic product. According to the International Monetary Fund, China's 2019 GDP was $14.14 trillion.
“We wanted to understand the impact of COVID-19 on China's economy, and how that impact transmits to other countries through economic and political links,” said Wendong Zhang. Zhang is an associate professor of economics at Iowa State and one of the researchers that created the database.
“Researchers and the general public can use it to explore COVID-19’s impact on China at the national and province level—we found, cleaned, and translated provincial sector-level data that is not easy to find in the national-level data releases,” Zhang said. “As a result, our database is valuable to the research community in quantitative trade and macroeconomic modeling—for example, our database is also aggregated to GTAP-sectors.”
“Due to data limitations, we don't have full coverage for all 900 province-sector combinations—we currently have province by sector-level information for around half of China’s provinces, and we do not provide commodity-specific information for the agricultural sector,” Zhang said.
However, Zhang said the database was constructed from a comprehensive dataset from various sources and shows a basic idea of COVID-19’s initial impacts on China's economy, and researchers can also use it to investigate how the economic shocks affect other countries through economic linkages.
Zhang said the database will be updated monthly, and, in the future, the researchers hope to expand it to increase its coverage to increase usability. The database is available in both English and Chinese.
Other researchers involved in the project include Tao Xiong, a visiting scholar at the Center for China-US Agricultural Economics and Policy at CARD and a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, and Xi He, a postdoctoral research associate at CARD. The researchers welcome feedback and suggestions.
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
Wendong Zhang, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-2536; wdzhang@iastate.edu
Xi He, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development; xihe@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 515-294-3809; nmcook@iastate.edu
AMES, Iowa – A new study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University projects economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak will mean steep losses for Iowa agriculture, including over $2 billion each for the hog and ethanol sectors, if the disease and social distancing policy impacts hold throughout the year.
Display Full News Release ↓AMES, Iowa – A new study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University projects economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak will mean steep losses for Iowa agriculture, including over $2 billion each for the hog and ethanol sectors, if the disease and social distancing policy impacts hold throughout the year.
As the COVID-19 outbreak lingers, 52 U.S. states and territories are either encouraging or mandating social distancing policies, which often include closings of nonessential businesses. While these policies are necessary to slow the spread of the virus and ensure human safety, they restrict economic output and demand.
The new CARD analysis, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Iowa’s Corn, Soybean, Ethanol, Pork, and Beef Sectors,” shows potential losses in every examined agricultural sector. The study finds potential damage of $34 million for calves and feeder cattle, $213 million for soybean, $658 million for fed cattle, $788 million for corn, $2.1 billion for hogs and over $2.5 billion for ethanol.
“While some of this damage has already been realized, the majority of the impact comes from the continued slowdown of the general economy and the pricing, processing and distribution of future commodities,” according to John Crespi, CARD’s director and an author of the study. “To estimate potential losses in agricultural revenues, we examine the price reactions of various agricultural markets during the pandemic and explore the revenue losses indicated by those price movements.”
The ethanol and hog industries are likely to be especially hard-hit.
“The ethanol industry, in fact, the entire fuel industry, was already in poor economic shape before the COVID-19 outbreak—energy supplies were high, stocks were building, usage was stagnant, and input costs had been rising before the outbreak, squeezing already tight margins,” said Chad Hart, an associate professor of economics and a study co-author. “On top of that, OPEC+ countries (mainly Saudi Arabia and Russia) quarreled about oil supply levels during the first quarter of 2020, which sent energy supplies higher and prices lower. And now, social distancing restrictions are severely limiting fuel consumption,” Hart said.
Ethanol plants are also currently facing a unique situation, in that the plant closures are not due to employee illnesses. “No ethanol plants have noted worker availability problems due to the virus—economic returns are driving the closures,” Hart said.
Other plant closures are being driven by employee shortages, Hart said. “Plants are closing for a variety of reasons, but for meat processing facilities, the virus outbreaks seem to be the main cause, as it limits the number of workers available,” Hart said.
“The COVID-19 outbreak is presenting an unprecedented situation in the way plants are handling employment changes,” Crespi said. “During this economic interruption, as opposed to the financial crisis of 2008, for example, firms are not cutting employees the same ways as before. While unemployment is very high—it has not been this high since the 1930s—some firms are treating this as a temporary change and are keeping employees on half-time or other pay rates,” he said.
It is difficult to predict when an economic recovery will come, or what exactly it will look like, Crespi said. “There is so much uncertainty right now. Many people expect jobs to come back once the pandemic subsides, but no one can predict when or how that will work. A breakthrough on a vaccine, for example, could change the outlook very quickly.”
Other co-authors of the report are Dermot J. Hayes, professor of economics, Keri L. Jacobs, associate professor of economics, and Lee L. Schulz, associate professor of economics. All authors are also affiliated with CARD.
For over 60 years, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has conducted innovative public policy and economic research on local, regional, and global agricultural issues, combining academic excellence with engagement and anticipatory thinking to inform and benefit society.
Contacts:
John Crespi, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development; 515-294-1699; jcrespi@iastate.edu
Nathan Cook, Communications, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development; 515-294-3809; nmcook@iastate.edu
Publications
Dermot Hayes, Keri Jacobs, Lee Schulz, and John Crespi
The upheaval wrought on the U.S. beef industry by the global COVID-19 pandemic carried with it several lessons that might help improve resiliency should there be a reoccurrence. First, the futures market for fed cattle fell well before cash prices, which sent a signal to market cattle early, and those who did so benefited. Second, the decline in futures anticipated the closure of slaughter plants and provided an opportunity to purchase and store beef primals in anticipation of future scarcity. Third, the beef industry has ways of slowing or stopping the pipeline of animals destined for feed yards and can “store” these animals in background feeding facilities or on pasture or rangeland. Producers who waited to sell feeder cattle benefited from higher feeder cattle prices once the processing facilities reopened. Fourth, cow slaughter plants responded to the pandemic and subsequent scarcity of labor much better than large fed-cattle plants. Cow plants are not as sophisticated and complex as fed-cattle plants. This relative simplicity may help explain the superior performance of these plants during the crisis. Sixth, the academic work on the value of building smaller plants as a response against concentration provides mixed results—these plants require more labor per animal and can be even more susceptible to labor scarcity. Seventh, the observed increase in boxed beef prices, even as fed cattle prices fell, demonstrates the risk-mitigating impact of producer ownership of downstream activities in the value chain.
Peter Orazem
Since July 2019, Iowa has lost 3.4% of its labor force and 3.3% of its employment. Nationally, employment is 3.7% below the July 2019 level, and so Iowa is doing slightly better on employment loss. However, the national labor force has fallen only 1.4% and in that way Iowa has performed much worse than the nation on labor force participation. That said, there has been a surge in Iowa’s labor force participation from June 2021 to July 2021 as the two-year decrease in labor force participation was -4.7% in June; and thus, there was a substantial improvement in Iowa’s labor force participation over the past month.
Ezra Butcher and Lee L. Schulz
In 2020, due to COVID-19, swine and pork markets in the United States experienced the worst disruption since 1998. We seek to inform discussions about marketing outcomes and possible structural changes by establishing performance baselines and providing definitions and descriptions for transactions between producers and packers. From 2010–2020, prices were highest in 2014 and lowest in 2020. We estimate simple models to see how changes in pork packing plant capacity utilization impact market hog prices by sale type. Results indicate that negotiated prices are the most sensitive to increases in utilization, decreasing 2.34% for every 1% increase in utilization. Negotiated sales volume has become incredibly thin, comprising only 1.52% of all hogs reported in 2020, compared with 14.65% back in 2002. There is a need, on occasion, to modify how data is published which directly contributes to the effectiveness of Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR). For example, other purchase arrangement sales increased in volume in 2016 as hogs raised without ractopamine or antibiotics were reclassified from swine or pork market formula sales. Sales based on the CME Lean Hog Index or Pork Cutout Index have been reclassified as swine or pork market formula sales. The correlation of pork carcass cutout values and negotiated hog prices has deteriorated from 0.919 in 2013 to 0.255 in 2020. Separating swine or pork market formula sales into swine formula sales and pork formula sales could improve price correlations. Summaries of price distributions provide a snapshot of marketing outcomes and aid in bringing further transparency to the marketplace.
Xi He, Edward J. Balistreri, Gyu Hyun Kim, Tao Xiong, and Wendong Zhang
This study introduces a database that can be used to analyze COVID-19’s impacts on China’s regional economies. This database contains various sectoral and regional economic outcomes. In the context of a general equilibrium trade model, we utilize the provincial and sectoral value-added and national trade series to estimate COVID-19’s province-by-month labor-productivity impacts. Compared to February 2019 levels, we find an average 37.9% decrease in labor productivity (equivalent to around 293 million jobs) and an average 20.8% decrease in welfare across provinces in February 2020. Both labor productivity and welfare have recovered quickly since April 2020. As of September 2020, average provincial labor productivity increased by 29.8% (equivalent to around 230 million jobs) and average welfare increased by 14.7% relative to their September 2019 levels.
Alfons Weersink, Mike von Massow, Nicholas Bannon, Jennifer Ifft, Josh Maples, Ken McEwan, Melissa G.S. McKendree, Charles Nicholson, Andrew Novakovic, Anusuya Rangarajan, Timothy Richards, Bradley Rickard, James Rude, Meagan Schipanski, Gary Schnitkey, Lee L. Schulz, Daniel Schuurman, Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein, Mark Stephenson, Jada Thompson, and Katie Wood
Agri-food supply chains in North America have become remarkably efficient, supplying an unprecedented variety of items at the lowest possible cost. However, the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the near-total temporary loss of the foodservice distribution channel, exposed a vulnerability that many found surprising. Instead of continued shortages, however, the agri-food sector has since moved back to near normal conditions with prices and production levels similar to those typically observed in years prior to the pandemic. Ironically, the specialization in most food supply chains designed for “just-in-time” delivery to specific customers with no reserve capacity, which led to the initial disruptions, may have also been responsible for its rapid rebound. A common theme in assessing the impacts across the six commodities examined is the growing importance of understanding the whole supply chain.
Dermot J. Hayes, Lee L. Schulz, Chad E. Hart, and Keri L. Jacobs
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) severely disrupted the U.S. food supply chain. In its initial aftermath, and as we contemplate a potential reignition, the food supply chain industries, researchers, and policy makers search for evidence, causes, and consequences. This article uses publicly available data on the pork and egg industries and a survey of the turkey industry as a first step to document the impact of COVID-19. Researchers can learn from the experiences in industries where disruptions evolve differently in the face of simultaneous supply- and demand-side shocks and that stem from differences in structures of the supply chains. This early evidence is used to motivate future research needs and highlight opportunities for industry investments in resiliency strategies.
Dermot Hayes and Lee L. Schulz
It is very challenging to project pork packing plant operating capacity and available market-ready supplies in the coming weeks. However, to provide context, this short report presents projections based upon currently available information.
Ritwik Banerjee, Joydeep Bhattacharya, and Priyama Majumdar
We define prediction bias as the systematic error arising from an incorrect prediction of the number of positive COVID cases x-weeks hence when presented with y-weeks of prior, actual data on the same. Our objective is to investigate the importance of an exponential-growth prediction bias (EGPB) in understanding why the COVID-19 outbreak has exploded. To that end, our goal is to document EGPB in the comprehension of disease data, study how it evolves as the epidemic progresses, and connect it with compliance of personal safety guidelines such as the use of face coverings and social distancing. We also investigate whether a behavioral nudge, cost less to implement, can significantly reduce EGPB.
Juan Carlos Cordoba, Marla Ripoll, and Siqiang Yang
Official recession figures ignore the costs associated with the loss of human life due to COVID-19. This paper constructs "full recession" measures that take into account the death toll. Key for the estimates are the number of dead, the individual's willingness to accept mortality risk, and society's willingness to accept inequality. Our model features tractable heterogeneity, constant relative risk aversion to mortality risk, and age-specific survival rates. Using an estimated death toll of 400 thousand people for the US during a year, and a baseline 10% recession, we find that the corresponding full recession is 26% on average across individuals, 17% for a median voter, 13% for a planner with mild aversion to inequality, and 19% for a planner with larger aversion. Regarding the overall cost of the pandemic, we find that individuals would be willing to pay, on average, 41% of one-year consumption to fully avoid the pre-lockdown 1.9 million deaths from COVID-19. A median voter would be willing to pay 23%, a social planner with mild aversion to inequality only 11%, while a log-planner would pay 73%.
Wendong Zhang and Minghao Li
U.S. farmers have suffered a lot in the past few years: The trade war with China, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic have all resulted in substantial losses for many producers.
Farmers overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in 2016 and remain critical to his reelection in many swing states such as Iowa and Minnesota. But given the impact of all that’s happened, will they stick with the president in the November elections?
Kunwon Ahn, Jun Yeong Lee, and John V. Winters
COVID-19 created major disruptions for young people including health concerns, school closures, reduced social opportunities, and a wilting economy. We examine the effect of COVID-19 on high school completion in the United States. We find that high school completion rates increased considerably in 2020 compared to previous years. We investigate various mechanisms and find that worse employment conditions were the driving force. The lower opportunity costs of schooling because of the pandemic recession encouraged more young people to complete high school. The pandemic created extensive problems in education, but fortunately it did not reduce overall high school completion rates.
Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis
In the 2019 fiscal year, one in four US residents participated in one of USDA’s 15 food assistance programs. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to unprecedented spikes in unemployment as well as widespread school closures, has exacerbated already limited access to resources and sources of food for food insecure households. Harris-Lagoudakis examines how the federal governmental has addressed the effects of the pandemic by altering food policy and making changes to the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, SNAP, and other USDA food assistance programs. She finds that the economic downturn and the emergency federal policy provisions have increased the number of SNAP participating households and the amount of benefits allotted to SNAP beneficiaries. However, the NSLP and SBP have faced significant challenges in providing free and reduced price meals to children at risk for food insecurity.
Lee L. Schulz and Chad E. Hart
The COVID-19 pandemic has lowered the prices of US agricultural products, forced significant shifts in supply chains, and disrupted markets. Earlier this year, the livestock sector was hit significantly hard as processing facilities dealt with large COVID-19 outbreaks that reduced the availability of labor and created backups in the supply chain. To explore the extent of recovery in the US agricultural sector, Schulz and Hart examine USDA’s most recent meat, corn, and soybean projections. The data show mixed results for US agricultural products—the prices and projections for some products are down, while others are up from the last outlook.
Jayson L. Lusk, Glynn T. Tonsor, and Lee L. Schulz
COVID-19-related disruptions led to a historic rise in the spread between livestock and wholesale meat prices. Concerns about concentration and allegations of anticompetitive behavior have led to several inquiries and civil suits by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Justice, with increases in price differentials serving as a focal point. This article notes the difference between price spreads and marketing margins, outlines corresponding economic theory, and describes the empirical evidence on wholesale meat and livestock price dynamics in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. At one point during the pandemic, beef and pork packers were both operating at about 60% of the previous year's processing volume. We explore how such a massive supply shock would be expected to affect marketing margins even in the absence of anticompetitive behavior. Moreover, we document how margin measurements are critically sensitive to the selection of data and information utilized. Finally, we conclude with some discussion around policy proposals that would pit industry concentration against industry coordination and economies of scale.
Joydeep Bhattacharya, Shankha Chakraborty, and Xiumei Yu
This paper offers a parsimonious, rational-choice model to study the effect of pre-existing inequalities on the transmission of COVID-19. Agents decide whether to "go out" (or self-quarantine) and, if so, whether to wear protection such as masks. Three elements distinguish the model from existing work. First, non-symptomatic agents do not know if they are infected. Second, some of these agents unknowingly transmit infections. Third, we permit two-sided prevention via the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions: the probability of a person catching the virus from another depends on protection choices made by each. We find that a mean-preserving increase in pre-existing income inequality unambiguously increases the equilibrium proportion of unprotected, socializing agents and may increase or decrease the proportion who self-quarantine. Strikingly, while higher pre-COVID inequality may or may not raise the overall risk of infection, it increases the risk of disease in social interactions.
Seung Jin Cho, Jun Yeong Lee, and John V. Winters
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing massive economic disruptions in the United States. Unemployment has hit record levels as businesses nationwide grapple with both mandatory and voluntary closures and dwindling patronage. However, certain factors, such as population density, have led to some parts of the country seeing higher unemployment levels. Cho, Lee, and Winters examine recent IPUMS data to find differences in unemployment levels between urban and rural areas and across US Bureau of Economic Activity regions and find that rural areas are seeing lower unemployment rates than urban areas, and the Plains region is seeing lower unemployment levels than areas than other USBEA regions.
Lee L. Schulz and Chad E. Hart
Just like other sectors of the economy, the US agricultural sector has seen an economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As various economic sectors resume activity, businesses are adjusting to living with the virus. Agricultural producers and USDA are reevaluating commodity markets and changing outlooks for the rest of the year. Schulz and Hart compare USDA’s meat, corn, and soybean projections from January 2020 with the most recent update, released in mid-June 2020, and find that the outlook changes are much more concentrated on prices than production.
Seung Jin Cho, Jun Yeong Lee, and John V. Winters
We examine effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment losses across metropolitan area status and population size. Non-metropolitan and metropolitan areas of all sizes experienced significant employment losses, but the impacts are much larger in large metropolitan areas. Employment losses manifest as increased unemployment, labor force withdrawal, and temporary absence from work. We examine the role of individual and local area characteristics in explaining differing employment losses across metropolitan status and size. The local COVID-19 infection rate is a major driver of differences across MSA size. Industry mix and employment density also matter. The pandemic significantly altered urban economic activity.
Seung Jin Cho, Jun Yeong Lee, and John V. Winters
Food production and distribution is essential for human well-being, but the food sector has experienced a number of difficulties maintaining worker health and productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine employment status changes of persons recently employed in the U.S. food sector with a focus on food manufacturing and grocery stores. We find that the pandemic significantly reduced the probability of continued active employment for previous workers in both food manufacturing and grocery stores. Individual-level analysis confirms that the COVID-19 infection rate in an individual’s local labor market is a strong and significant factor. The employment changes are not just due to unemployment during facility closures. Previous workers increasingly exit the labor force as the severity of the COVID-19 infection rate in their local area worsens. The considerable risk of infection drives many previous food sector workers to stop working altogether. Maintaining worker health and safety is essential for a stable food supply.
Seung Jin Cho and John V. Winters
COVID-19 substantially decreased employment, but the effects vary among demographic and socioeconomic groups. We document the employment losses in April 2020 across various groups using the U.S. Current Population Survey. The unemployment rate understates employment losses. We focus on the percentage of the civilian population that is employed and at work. Young persons experienced the largest employment losses. Individuals with less education and lower family income experienced much larger employment losses than their more educated and higher income counterparts. Hispanics and blacks were more adversely affected than whites.
Xi He, Dermot J. Hayes, and Wendong Zhang
The authors examine China’s committed agricultural purchases under the phase one trade deal and whether it can fulfill those commitments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They review China’s actual agricultural imports from the United States and other countries up to the first quarter of 2020 and analyze trade deal obligations China must still meet by the end of 2020. They use prior seasonal patterns and US-China price differentials to predict China’s agricultural imports from the United States in 2020. They examine total agricultural and related products with special focus on corn, soybeans, cotton, sorghum, pork, and beef.
Syed Hasan, Attique Rehman, and Wendong Zhang
In this article, we examine the feasibility of working and studying from home in Pakistan. We take advantage of the 2018–19 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey, released only weeks ago. PSLM is a nationally representative household survey with extensive information on employment outcomes, children’s educational attainment, internet and TV access information, and hand-washing place. Following Dingel and Neiman (2020)’s approach, we define the feasibility of jobs that can be done from home for both urban and rural districts. We also investigate the possibilities for students to study from home via TV or internet. We find that only 10% of jobs in Pakistan can be done from home, and rates are even lower for rural residents, as so many of Pakistan’s workers are in low-skill, low-paying service industries and cannot work from home. Our results also highlight the homeschooling challenges Pakistan’s students face, given low rates of access to TV and the internet. Pre-existing inequalities in which many rural female students already lack educational opportunities will further compound these diffculties. Our results highlight the need for state’s financial support for vulnerable workers and expanded internet access for both teaching and effective job performance.
Ritwik Banerjee, Joydeep Bhattacharya, and Priyama Majumdar
This study uses a unique, Amazon MTurk-based global experiment to investigate the importance of an exponential-growth prediction bias (EGPB) in understanding why the COVID-19 outbreak has exploded and finds that the “degree of convexity” reflected in the predicted path of the disease is significantly and substantially lower than the actual path.
Chad E. Hart, Dermot J. Hayes, Keri L. Jacobs, Lee L. Schulz, and John M. Crespi
This study estimates the COVID-19 outbreak’s revenue impacts on some of Iowa’s largest agricultural industries, and finds overall annual damage of roughly $788 million for corn, $213 million for soybean, over $2.5 billion for ethanol production losses and $347 million in losses due to falling ethanol prices, $658 million for fed cattle, $34 million for calves and feeder cattle, and $2.1 billion for hogs.
Lee L. Schulz
Livestock Outlook: Supplies of beef and other meat are large and rising as COVID-19 threatens demand.
Wendong Zhang and Tao Xiong
The novel coronavirus has shocked the world’s economies.
US-China Trade and COVID Impacts in China
COVID-19 Economic Database: China
This database shows how COVID-19 impacts propagated across China’s provinces and economic sectors, both during the outbreak and when most of China began returning to work.
Presentation: US-China Agricultural Trade and Shifting Consumption Patterns in China
Wendong Zhang; Nick Paulson
Farmdoc Daily Webinar Series "Coronavirus and Ag"
Analysis from the Program for the Study of Midwest Markets and Entrepreneurship
Ask an Economist
I'm looking for a quick and dirty way to total up the economic costs of Covid-19. Does it make sense to add (1) expected 2020 GDP losses (about $1.6T) to (2) the total cost of the federal Covid-19 response bills (assume for now that it's about $8T??) to get $9.6T at a minimum? In totaling up the cost of the Federal intervention, should we subtract from $8T the additional GDP losses that would have occurred if the stimulus spending had not been made? Also, why can't I find this kind of analysis online? Where should I be looking?
With this global and U. S. crisis because of the coronavirus what is the possibility of the catastrophic devaluation of the dollar so that my buying power is greatly reduced?
In light of the current pandemic, and constant feuding about what it means for our economy, I wanted to ask what the best long term solution is for reopening the United States economy. Is it in the best interest of our economy to reopen soon, losing lives, or is minimizing the death in the long term a better economic strategy?
My name is Tracy Bergmann, I am the Chief Examiner for the Iowa Division of Banking. We supervise Iowa state chartered banks in Iowa. We continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on the institutions we regulate, their customers, and the customers they serve. Agriculture has been on our radar for sometime now, but we are trying to get more detailed data on how much agricultural debt is in Iowa, specifically what is the breakdown between Ag Operating, Livestock debt, Term debt, and Real Estate debt./p>
We traditionally get our data from two sources: 1) call report filed by banks quarterly which does not go into enough detail to get the information that we want; and 2) the banks themselves when we conduct an examination. Banks generally have concentration reports that will break down debt on many different levels; however, this doesn't give us aggregated point in time data.
I have been looking at the ISU, Ohio State University, and USDA websites in an attempt to get the data we are looking for, but cannot find it. I find news reports or research that mentions these sources, but I can't get to the raw data we are looking for. When I do find data that is close to what we want, it is a couple years old.
Do you have any suggestions on where we can find this data? We appreciate any assistance you are able to give, as we monitor the impact of COVID-19, particularly in the ag sector. Thank you!
Tracy Bergmann
Hello, in the article China confident of meeting 2020 fiscal targets: Finance Minister, it says China has been implementing tax and fee cuts, and "issued 100 billion yuan (about 14.1 billion U.S. dollars) of special government bonds for COVID-19 control measures in a bid to support local infrastructure construction and epidemic prevention and control". In what ways with implementing tax and fee cuts help china's recovery? And if selling government bonds are a contractionary monetary policy, what will this do, other than fund fiscal objectives, to help a recovering economy? Why sell bonds instead of borrow more?
Of course, as you know, the entire world has been massively affected by the coronavirus, including the world's economies. Recession will be a huge problem for many countries, even the richer countries such as the US and the UK. So my, perhaps ignorant question, as a 15 year old is - since every country will be negatively impacted by the virus, what would happen if the entire world, or close to it were to decide to just lower the price of everything, the price of buying everything, manufacturing everything, and everyone's salaries are lower too in comparison. Would that solve anything? As after all, the world's economic figures are just numbers, but could cause so much harm to everything and everyone in that country.
I am 16 years old and I want to start a project that makes yarn whales to give to people in the hospital during this time. If it successful and keeps momentum, I want to continue this even after the COVID-19 has subsided. A problem though, is that I have no idea where to start, what kind of permission I need from who, or anything like that. I would love some pointers and help on what to do. I really thank you for reading and answering my question. Stay strong :)
What could cause live cattle prices, that is the price paid for cattle on the hoof, to plummet, suddenly, when numbers have not increased substantially, (we were in a herd building mode following a drought), but boxed prices are at an all time high. Packers are receiving huge net profits, ($1300 per head)while ranchers are losing money. ($350 per head). Cattle-Fax and other statistics gathering reporting and marketing services predicted that cattle prices would remain high throughout the herd rebuilding phase of the cattle cycle, about 3 years. But, suddenly, and without warning, cattle prices crashed, August 2015, There was not a crash in the general economy. Live cattle are traded on the futures market, Chicago Board of Exchange. The U.S. does engage in exporting and importing of beef. Secondly, because of a fire in a processing plant, and the COVID19 pandemic, the problems in the cattle industry have come to the attention of the federal govt. because of food security issues.
What measures can be taken to keep the cattle industry in the U.S. from imploding? What can prevent vertical integration from further occurring? How can the American farmers and ranchers be kept from bankruptcy, (without gov’t subsidies or handouts) making sure that private ownership of land persists? What kind of market manipulation could cause all this?
What would the impact of a Congressional or Presidential order for a “financial time out” until the virus is brought under control? This would be a closure of the stock market and suspension of all debt and rent. This would be far cheaper than throwing trillions of borrowed dollars at everyone and everything! I believe we are working on the wrong part of the “equation.” People would only have to worry about food, water, and utilities. This is a much smaller problem to solve! When the virus is brought under control, the “time out” can be canceled and the economy can be brought back to life. People will have confidence, in the meantime, that their life savings isn’t going to melt down. It is absurd to allow this virus to destroy our economy! It doesn’t have to!
Media Contacts
Peter Orazem was interviewed by Yahoo! about a record number of Iowan's quitting their jobs in August.
Peter Orazem was interviewed by WHO Radio about Iowa's workforce.
Peter Orazem was interviewed by the Gazette about Iowa's labor pool.
Chad Hart was interviewed by Food Dive about USDA providing grants to meatpackers and farmers affected by COVID.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Iowa Farmer Today about consumer meat demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- http://kokomoperspective.com/news/agriculture/covid-stokes-demand-for-higher-quality-meat/article_4f663097-251d-5bf7-a974-bb6b90ce9a23.html
- https://theeagle.com/landandlivestockpost/covid-stokes-demand-for-higher-quality-meat/article_9220adf2-fc72-11eb-a677-a345f6fc0089.html
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Agri-Pulse about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected supply and demand in the US livestock sector.
Chad Hart was interviewed by Iowa Public Radio about the challenges that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak may face.
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Gazette about the current rate of farm bankruptcies in Iowa.
Lee Schulz was interviewed about US meat production levels and how producers are coping with COVID-19 outbreaks.
Also appears in:
- https://themercury.com/ap/us-plants-hope-to-maintain-production-despite-virus-threat/article_cb518d60-84e8-5685-b69b-1d20b138b4e6.html
Lee Schulz was interviewed about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected livestock producers risk management.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Farm Journal about how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered hog slaughter capacity in the United States.
Lee Schulz research on the US pork industry was utilized in an article.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Radio Iowa about US pork exports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://www.iowapublicradio.org/agriculture/2020-10-30/sales-overseas-boost-us-pork-helping-defray-2020s-challenges
- https://www.kwit.org/post/news-103020-c-19-trends-sen-ernst-siouxland-biden-ia-halloween-drunk-driving-and-more
- https://kiwaradio.com/ag-news/pork-producers-shift-sales-pitches-overseas-to-weather-the-pandemic/
Chad Hart was interviewed by Forbes for an article about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected US agriculture and, specifically, John Deere.
John Winters was interviewed by WHO Radio about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected graduation rates.
Also appears in:
- https://kfab.iheart.com/content/2020-10-26-new-isu-study-shows-covid-19-has-positive-effect-on-graduation-rates/
- https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/high-school-completion-rates-rose-iowa-state-university-covid-19-pandemic/524-8a71ce13-a27e-4dab-842f-865cca902784
- https://fox8.com/news/pandemic-has-positive-effect-on-high-school-completion-rates-study-finds/
- https://who13.com/news/pandemic-has-positive-effect-on-high-school-completion-rates-according-to-isu-study/
- https://www.radioiowa.com/2020/10/30/isu-student-shows-higher-high-school-graduation-rates-during-pandemic/
- https://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/national-high-school-graduation-rates-rise-during-pandemic-john-winters-jun-yeong-lee-kunwon-ahn-leah-silverberg-after-school-alliance-iowa-department-of-education-department-of-economics-iowa-state-university-coronavirus/article_e01eeb56-22d2-11eb-b183-f7f1f7559b29.html
- https://news.yahoo.com/pandemic-positive-effect-high-school-213100803.html
- https://www.wfla.com/news/national/pandemic-has-positive-effect-on-high-school-completion-rates-study-finds/
Lee Schulz was interviewed by National Provisioner about how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted labor supply in the livestock industry.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by KCII radio about livestock processing capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keri Jacobs will lead a USDA-funded study to examine the resiliency of agricultural supply chains in the US Midwest.
Also appears in:
- https://www.morningagclips.com/researchers-into-ag-supply-chain-resiliency/
- https://www.thecattlesite.com/news/55900/researchers-at-iowa-state-explore-the-resilience-of-agriculture-supply-chains/
- https://www.thepigsite.com/news/2020/09/researchers-at-iowa-state-explore-the-resilience-of-agriculture-supply-chains
- https://www.drovers.com/article/isu-researchers-investigate-ag-supply-chain-resiliency
- https://www.porkbusiness.com/article/isu-researchers-investigate-ag-supply-chain-resiliency
- https://wxerfm.com/2020/10/02/usda-gives-grants-to-universities-to-find-solutions-for-small-businesses/
- https://www.farmprogress.com/usda/14-million-awarded-pandemic-research
Chad Hart was interviewed by Radio Iowa about newly announced USDA funds for farmers.
Also appears in:
- https://kiwaradio.com/ag-news/trump-administration-releasing-another-round-of-federal-farm-aid/
Chad Hart was interviewed by Brownfield Ag News about producers qualifying for CFAP2.
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about USDA's $14 billion in aid for farmers with COVID-19 losses.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Farm Journal about the link between hog exports and prices.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Meat+Poultry about the current status of the US meat packing industry as it deals with COVID-19.
Lee Schulz's research on COVID-19's impact on the US pork and beef sectors was used in an article.
Lee Schulz recently told Brownfield Ag News that the number of hogs euthanized due to the COVID-19 pandemic is lower than originally thought.
John Winters was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about the effects COVID-19 is having on Iowa's labor economics.
John Winters was interviewed about the current jobless rate and some of the factors currently influencing rural unemployment.
Chad Hart was interviewed about the outlook for Iowa's economy.
Lee Schulz was interviewed about current meat and poultry supplies.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed about anticipated hog processing plant capacity expectations this fall.
John Winters was interviewed about his study that examines the labor impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://www.kcci.com/article/isu-study-shows-pandemic-had-greater-impact-on-unemployment/33308601#
- https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/iowa-state-university-research-develops-model-to-show-economic-impact-of-coronavirus-20200714
- https://kiwaradio.com/local-news/isu-research-shows-37-5-of-working-young-adults-lost-jobs-this-spring/
- https://www.newswise.com/coronavirus/covid-19-unemployment-rates-may-be-underestimated/?article_id=734864&ta=home
An Agricultural Policy Review article by Ed Balistreri was cited in a PEW article about farmers current outlooks on agricultural trade.
Also appears in:
- https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Pandemic-China-Trade-Deal-Fuel-Farmer-Doubts--30904391/
- http://www.newsbug.info/news/nation/pandemic-china-trade-deal-fuel-farmer-doubts/article_c1c34430-fbe6-5fe6-a5ca-3e573fbdddc0.html
John Winters was interviewed about the current business economy in Iowa.
Also appears in:
- https://www.kcrg.com/2020/07/10/iowa-businesses-dont-have-confidence-in-economic-recovery-from-covid-19/
- https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/07/09/jobless-claims-increase-iowa-economic-figures-flash-warnings/5403144002/
Lee Schulz was interviewed about hog backlogs on US farms.
Also appears in:
- https://www.porkbusiness.com/article/hogs-and-pigs-report-uncertainty-remains-record-large-inventory
- https://www.farms.com/news/hog-backlog-on-u-s-farms-could-hit-2-million-head-157712.aspx
- https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rural-news/rural-world-news/pig-of-a-situation-in-the-us
Chad Hart was interviewed about financial aid for farmers and agricultural producers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://www.newsrepublican.com/news/20200624/with-losses-mounting-iowa-farmers-ag-groups-hope-congressional-leaders-provide-additional-coronavirus-aid
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Today about US companies shipping pork to China during COVID-induced production shortages.
Peter Orazem was interviewed about the National Bureau of Economic Research determination that the US is now in a recession.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed about how the demand for some pork products has gone up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed about COVID-19's impact on current and future hog markets.
Also appears in:
- https://www.porkbusiness.com/article/hog-economist-if-it-werent-virus-wed-be-expansion-mode
Lee Schulz's research on livestock markets was utilized for an article about post-COVID-19 beef production.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Successful Farming about the possible changes to the meat packing industry due to COVID-19.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Bloomberg about meat industry issues caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/opaque-world-american-meat-trading-100000360.html
A study by Xi He, Dermot Hayes, and Wendong Zhang was cited in a Successful Farming article.
Also appears in:
- https://www.realagriculture.com/2020/05/ending-may-on-the-lows-this-week-in-the-grain-markets/
- https://vet-advantage.com/live_equine_news/china-wont-buy-u-s-chicken-in-june-may-fall-short-of-trade-deal-commitments/
Chad Hart was interviewed by The Gazette about record sales at eastern Iowa meat lockers.
A new web hub created by CARD and the Department of Economics tracks COVID-19's economic impacts, especially for Iowa.
Also appears in:
- https://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/tag/iowa-state/
- https://www.iowa.media/2020/08/10/web-hub-offers-resources-on-covid-19s-impacts/
- https://www.thecattlesite.com/news/55343/new-iowa-state-web-hub-lets-users-track-covid19s-economic-impacts-in-the-us/
- https://www.timesrepublican.com/news/todays-news/2020/08/web-hub-offers-resources-on-covid-19s-impacts/
- https://www.newsrepublican.com/news/20200520/isu-ag-and-economic-departments-create-covid-19-data-based-webpage-for-iowa-markets
- https://www.amestrib.com/news/20200520/isu-ag-and-economic-departments-create-covid-19-data-based-webpage-for-iowa-markets
- https://www.newsbreak.com/news/1614706519576/web-hub-offers-resources-on-covid-19s-impacts
- https://spotoniowa.com/central-iowa/1103554/web-hub-offers-resources-on-covid-19s.html
- https://www.northscottpress.com/wdadvocatenews/news/?page_size=20&category_id=6&sub_type=stories&list_type=most_commented&page=12
- https://www.swineweb.com/new-iowa-state-web-hub-offers-resources-to-track-covid-19s-economic-impacts-on-ag-industry/
- http://www.thebeefsite.com/news/55343/new-iowa-state-web-hub-lets-users-track-covid19s-economic-impacts-in-the-us/
- https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/130556
- https://www.adelnews.com/news/20200520/isu-ag-and-economic-departments-create-covid-19-data-based-webpage-for-iowa-markets
- https://www.rfdtv.com/story/42160683/iowa-state-university-releases-new-tool-to-track-ag-economy-amid-coronavirus-pandemic
- https://www.morningagclips.com/resources-to-track-covid-19s-economic-impacts/
- https://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/new-iowa-state-web-hub-offers-resources-to-track-covid-19s-economic-impacts/
- https://www.agweek.com/business/agriculture/6535962-Iowa-State-tool-estimates-COVID-19s-impact-on-ag
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Nebraska NPR about USDA’s latest Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry outlook report.
Chad Hart was interviewed about meat packing plant closures and supply chain issues.
Also appears in:
- https://newsbrig.com/as-meat-processing-factories-struggle-to-reopen-amid-coronavirus-outbreaks-govt-documents-warn-of-shortages-by-the-end-of-may/12975/
Lee Schulz was interviewed about meat prices and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chad Hart was interviewed about crop outlooks for 2020 and the impact of COVID-19 on supply chains.
Also appears in:
- https://www.kmuw.org/post/outlook-corn-and-soybeans-isn-t-great-it-could-have-been-worse
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Associated Press about US meat exports and stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://www.wftv.com/news/us-meat-exports/KDLQYNNLXTLSI7UPK6DMXICJ24/
- https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/05/13/meat-exports-surge-as-industry-struggles-to-meet-us-demand/
- https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/nation-and-world/us-meat-exports-surge-even-as-processing-industry-struggles-to-meet-domestic-demand-20200513
- https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2020/05/14/us-meat-exports-surge-industry-struggles-meet-demand/5192731002/
- https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/may/14/meat-exports-surge-despite-struggle-202/
Chad Hart was interviewed by WHO Radio about recent hikes in grocery store prices.
Also appears in:
- https://kfab.iheart.com/content/2020-05-13-covid-19-supply-demand-issues-push-largest-grocery-price-hike-since-1970/
Dermot Hayes was interviewed about hog producers euthanizing animals due supply chain disruptions.
Also appears in:
- https://nebraska.tv/news/ntvs-grow/fischer-joins-bipartisan-group-seeking-support-for-pork-producers
- https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/business/10-million-hogs-nowhere-go
- https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-millions-hogs-euthanized-supply-chain
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about the potential losses Iowa's farmers are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://newsus.app/youre-losing-money-everywhere-iowa-farmers-try-to-hang-on-through-pandemic-crisis/
Chad Hart was interviewed by NPR about the outlook for the US food supply chain.
Lee Schulz's research on fed cattle prices was utilized by Beef magazine.
Wendong Zhang was interviewed by Marketplace about China/US trade during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Ottumwa Courier about COVID-19's effect on food supplies.
Chad Hart was interviewed by WHO Radio about meat supplies and Iowa's production.
Also appears in:
- https://kfab.iheart.com/content/2020-05-05-covid-restricts-meat-supply-even-in-pork-rich-iowa/
Wendong Zhang is quoted in a Wallaces Farmer article about CARD's new economic database that examines COVID-19's impacts on China's economy.
Also appears in:
- https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/130189
Dermot Hayes on COVID-19 losses in the hog industry.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2KT74fD
- https://bit.ly/2Wlq8sg
Lee Schulz was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times about how coronavirus is changing the way people feed themselves.
Also appears in:
- https://www.houmatoday.com/news/20200502/coronavirus-is-changing-way-world-feeds-itself
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Time magazine about COVID-19-related meat shortages.
Lee Schulz on the Trump administration's executive order keeping meat plants open.
Chad Hart on meat packing plant closures during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lee Schulz on meat packing plant closures and meat supply.
Dermot Hayes on COVID-19 and US trade with China.
Dermot Hayes on COVID-19 and pig processing.
Dermot Hayes on COVID-19 and pig culling.
Chad Hart on COVID-19 and Iowa's food supply chain.
Lee Schulz on livestock prices.
Lee Schulz on meat packing plant closures and meat supply.
Chad Hart was interviewed about meat packing plant closures in Iowa due to COVID-19.
Lee Schulz on COVID-19's impact on Iowa farmers.
Lee Schulz was interviewed about the effects COVID-19 is having on US meat supplies and processing plants.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by KICD Radio about COVID-19 related losses to the hog and pork industries.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by the Quad City Times about the effect COVID-19 is having on Iowa's meat packing industry.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2VUpxxt
- https://bit.ly/2yKYCfB
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Iowa Public Radio about how COVID-19 is affecting US meat supplies.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about meat processing plant closures due to COVID-19.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/3axJLTe
- https://bit.ly/3cE5dHs
Dermot Hayes and Chad Hart were interviewed by the Associated Press about meat shortages during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about for a story about the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on Illinois' dairy farmers.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Reuters about the impact of COVID-19 on US meat supplies.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Farm Journal's Pork about disruptions in livestock prices due to COVID-19.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by KWWL NBC channel 7 about COVID-19 outbreaks at meat processing plants.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by National Hog Farmer about COVID-19's impact on the hog supply chain.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2yB2ksf
- https://bit.ly/2XYMKBj
- https://bit.ly/3cHhSJH
- https://bit.ly/2zqcdJH
- https://bit.ly/3cNDi8i
- https://bit.ly/2Y290u1
- https://bit.ly/3bCnuoD
- https://bit.ly/3aD9Kc1
- https://bit.ly/2xp54ss
Lee Schulz was interviewed by Radio Iowa about the effects COVID-19 is having on livestock industries and consumer prices.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/3bhv4EK
Chad Hart was interviewed by Hoard's Dairyman about farmer resources available during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lee Schulz's research on livestock markets was utilized by Beef Magazine for an article about plant closures.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by Bloomberg about slaughterhouse closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/3ael0uX
- https://bit.ly/3cl6WRZ
- http://dailym.ai/2z7g3HD
- https://bit.ly/3crUyQi
- https://bit.ly/3ael0uX
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about the impact of the coronavirus on Iowa's rural communities.
Lee Schulz was interviewed by the Sioux City Journal about current foreign market demand for U.S. pork and beef.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2RJeLcf
Lee Schulz was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about consumers' panic buying during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wendong Zhang was interviewed by Farm Progress about uncertainty surrounding the US-China trade deal due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2y9lOnv
- https://bit.ly/3bpVq7g
- https://bit.ly/2xJZLUk
Wendong Zhang was interviewed by USAgNet about the impact the coronavirus will have on the US-China trade deal.
Peter Orazem was interviewed by the Des Moines Register for an article about a recent rise in Iowa's unemployment figures.
Also appears in:
- https://bit.ly/2xgw8tn
Wendong Zhang and Tao Xiong's The Conversation article about the coronavirus and the effect it will have on the US-China trade deal appeared on SF Gate.
Dermot Hayes was interviewed by WQAD channel 8 about the impact of the coronavirus on Iowa's agricultural industry.
Chad Hart was interviewed by Brownfield Ag News about the coronavirus and other issues that may affect crop markets.
Chad Hart was interviewed by the Des Moines Register about the coronavirus and how it will affect Iowa's agriculture industry.
Wendong Zhang was interviewed by MarketPlace about the coronavirus outbreak and China's intent to cut tariffs in response.
Wendong Zhang was interviewed by Radio Iowa about the coronavirus outbreak in China.
External Resources
- List of helpful resources and links related to the COVID-19 outbreak from ISU’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT)
- International resources and information about COVID-19 from the International Monetary Fund
- COVID-19 Resources for Agriculture from ISU Extension and Outreach
- Iowa Mobility Report prepared by Google (not affiliated with CARD or Iowa State)
- Economic Implications of COVID-19 from the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago
- Economic Impact of COVID-19 from the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy at University of Wisconsin-Madison
- COVID-19 Research and Resources from The Institute for Policy & Social Research at The University of Kansas
Graphs, Tables, and Charts
Community Mobility Reports
These maps highlight the percent change in visits to places like grocery stores and parks within a geographic area.
Iowa Unemployment Measures
This chart shows unemployment measures in Iowa, including initial claims, continued claims, and total unemployment.
Beef and Pork Price Spreads
This data set provides monthly average price values, and the differences among those values, at the farm, wholesale, and retail stages of the production and marketing chain.
Impact of COVID-19 on Iowa Cattle and Hog Prices
This tool estimates the total loss to Iowa’s fed cattle, calf, feeder cattle and hog prices due to COVID-19.
COVID-19 U.S. Dashboard from the Department of Statistics at Iowa State University
This tool provides a 7-day forecast (updated daily) and a 4-month forecast (updated weekly) of COVID-19 infected and death count at both the county level and state level.