News

Professor John Winters published an article in the most recent issue of Economic Development Quarterly. Winters co-authored the article "Too Cold to Venture There? January Temperature and Immigrant Self-Employment Across the United States" with Jun Yeong Lee of Pusan National University. The article examines the percentage of immigrant workers in local areas who are self-employed, and finds that areas with colder winter temperatures have especially low self-employment rates among their immigrant populations compared to warmer areas.

Moschini receives USDA-NIFA grant

Professor GianCarlo Moschini received a $407,593 grant from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Moschini's project, for which Ed Perry of Kansas State University will serve as a co-project director, will develop conceptual and empirical models of the US agrochemical market as an imperfectly competitive differentiated product industry. The research will permit analyses of several policy-relevant questions, including a characterization of the extent of market power in the industry and its evolution over time, the pricing and welfare consequences of mergers and industry consolidation, the competitive effects of patent expiration, and the impacts of possible bans (or taxes, or restrictions) on individual pesticide products.

Assistant Professor Gil DePaula published an interdisciplinary article in the most recent issue of Frontiers of Agronomy. DePaula co-authored "Smart connected farms and networked farmers to improve crop production, sustainability and profitability" with researchers from Iowa State University, the University of Vermont, Iowa Soybean Association, Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Kentucky, the University of Missouri, and the University of Delaware.

Research Scientist Phil Gassman co-authored the article "An integrated cyberinfrastructure system for water quality resources in the Upper Mississippi River Basin," with Jerry Mount, Yusuf Sermet, Christopher S. Jones, Keith E. Schilling, Larry J. Weber, Witold F. Krajewski, and Ibrahim Demir of the University of Iowa. The article, which is available online and will be included in a future issue of the journal Hydroinformatics, details the Upper Mississippi Information System, which is a cyberinfrastructure framework designed to support large-scale real-time water-quality data integration, analysis, and visualization for the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

CARD faculty, postdoctoral research associates present research findings at AAEA 2024 annual meeting

Several CARD researchers, including Giancarlo Moschini, David Hennessy, Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis, Hongli Feng, Rabail Chandio, Alejandro Plastina, and T. Jake Smith, presented research findings at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2024 Annual Meeting, which was held July 27-30 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Xuche Gong, a PhD student in the Department of Economics, and CARD researchers David Hennessy and Hongli Feng won the Best Paper Award presented by the Applied Risk Analysis Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). The authors were awarded at the 2024 AAEA Annual Meeting that took place July 27-30 in New Orleans.

Assistant Professor Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis had articles published in the most recent issues of Economic Letters and Economic Inquiry. In Economic Letters, Harris-Lagoudakis co-authored the article "Establishment level information as proxies for demand, congestion and social interaction," with Michael Conlin and Stacy Dickert-Conlin, both of Michigan State University. The article uses cell phone location data linked to store level transactions from a large grocery store chain and finds that the relationship between the number of daily transactions and daily cell phone visits varies within store, across time. In Economic Inquiry, Harris-Lagoudakis co-authored "Purchases over the SNAP benefit cycle: Evidence from supermarket panel data," with Hannah Wich of Stephen F. Austin State University. Their article investigates the effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit disbursement on intramonthly household level purchases made from a supermarket retailer and finds that spending, the likelihood of shopping, the bulk expenditure share and the national brand expenditure share increase by $2, 1.5, 2, and 0.6% points, respectively, on the day that SNAP benefits are disbursed.

Professor Lee Schulz recently authored an article for Wallaces Farmer. In "Would greater frequency improve hog inventory reports?" Schulz examines USDA's Hogs and Pigs report and questions if more frequent reporting could lead to more accurate numbers.

Professor Chad Hart's article "Examining the factors of fertilizer pricing," co-authored with Oranuch Wongpiyabovorn, Post Doctorate Research Associate at South Dakota State University, was published in the most recent issue of Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Their study examines the factors that contribute to fertilizer pricing and finds natural gas price changes are the main contributing factor in the latest period.

Associate Professor Alejandro Plastina published in the most recent issue of Choices. Plastina authored the article "Pervasive Disadoption Substantially Offsets New Adoption of Cover Crops and No-Till," with Wendiam Sawadgo, Assistant Professor with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Auburn University, and Emmanuel Okonkwo, a Research Assistant with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Auburn University. The article examines regional trends of adoption and disadoption of cover crops and no-till in the United States.

Assistant Professor Rabail Chandio published in the most recent issue of Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Chandio authored the article "Similarities in the US Department of Agriculture international baseline projections" with Professor Ani Katchova of The Ohio State University. Their article uses a dynamic time warping algorithm to examine whether USDA's corn, soybean, and wheat baselines exhibit a lack of significant distance, which would indicate similarity in projections across countries.

Professors Lee Schulz and John Crespi contributed an article, ""Who wins and who loses with the Perry pork plant closure", to Wallaces Farmer. Schulz and Crespi examine the announced closing of Tyson Foods' Perry, Iowa, pork processing plant in June, and how it will affect pork packers.

Research Scientist Phil Gassman published in the latest issue of Environmental Research Letters. Gassman, with Taiwo Akinyemi and Levan Elbakidze (West Virginia University), Yuelu Xu (Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research), Haw Yen (Bayer Crop Science), and Jeffery G. Arnold (USDA Agricultural Research Service), authored the article "Cross-Watershed Leakage of Agricultural Nutrient Runoff."

Gassman receives USDA-ARS grant

Research Scientist Phil Gassman received a $34,854 grant from the USDA Agricultural Research Service for the project "Developing Climate Based Ag Management Operation Scheduling and Natural Infrastructure Practices in the National Agroecosystem Model." The project will parameterize agricultural field operations and natural infrastructure practices for input to the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. Field operations will include planting and harvest, tillage, fertilizer applications, and irrigation. The scheduling of operations will be based on climate and crop conditions and sensitive to changes in climate. Natural infrastructure practices include wetlands, water and sediment control basins, beaver dams, and saturated buffers. Methodologies will be developed to incorporate the natural infrastructure practices into the National Agroecosystem Model (NAM). The model will be available for use in developing national conservation policy as part of CEAP (Conservation Effects Assessment Project) and for business-as-usual and aspirational scenarios as part of LTAR (Long Term Agroecosystem Research).

An article authored by Associate Professor Alejandro Plastina appears on Farms.com. Plastina wrote the article "Cover-Crop Acres Up in Texas, Stagnant Across Rest of the South" with Wendiam Sawadgo, an assistant professor at Auburn.

Reaching Regions Launches on Iowa State University Digital Press

Ames, Iowa – Researchers from Iowa State University, the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC), and West Virginia University have partnered to launch a new academic journal, Reaching Regions, hosted on Iowa State’s Digital Press.

Elobeid wins Interdisciplinary Team Research Award

Amani Elobeid is a member of the RegenPGC team that was named the 2024 recipient of the Interdisciplinary Team Research Award, an award given to reflect a team's commitment to ISU, professional reputation, and esteem among peers. The team also includes Raj Raman, Kenneth Moore, Daniel Andersen, Cynthia Bartel, Shuizhang Fei, Susana Goggi, Amy Kaleita, Anne Kinzel, Thomas Lubbersted, and Marshall McDaniel.

Smith Wins AAEA's Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

T. Jake Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at CARD, was named recipient of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association's prestigious Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. Smith was nominated for his dissertation "Agricultural production in the 21st century: Technology adoption, adaptation, and market power" for which he also won the CARD Award for Best Ph.D. Dissertation in Agricultural, Environmental, and Energy Economics and Policy. Smith's dissertation is comprised of studies on three significant developments in US agricultural markets during the twenty-first century: the adoption of genetically engineered (GE) corn seed, the implementation of the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard, and rising concerns over market power in the beef packing industry.

Soil Management and Land Valuation Conference Is May 15

AMES, Iowa – Farm managers, rural appraisers, real estate brokers and others interested in the Iowa land market can receive timely updates at this year’s Soil Management and Land Valuation Conference May 15 in Ames.

Schulz promoted to professor

Lee Schulz, CARD economist and Extension livestock economist, has been promoted from associate professor to professor. Schulz earned his PhD in economics from Kansas State University in 2012 and joined Iowa State University's Department of Economics as an assistant professor that same year. He was then promoted to associate professor in 2018.