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K-State Today

August 13, 2015

Agricultural economics department shines at annual conference

Submitted by Amanda Erichsen

Students from the Kansas State University agricultural economics department participated in the case study team competition at the annual conference of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, along with the Western Agricultural Economics Association, July 26-28, in San Francisco, California.

For the second year in a row, a K-State team earned first place. This team consisted of graduate students Ana Claudia Sant'Anna, Sandra Contreras, and Emrah Er. The other competing team included Kayode Ajewole, Noah Miller and Madhav Regmi. Team advisors were Aleksan Shanoyan and Jason Bergtold.

Several faculty members earned honors from the associations' award sessions.

From Western Agricultural Economics Association: Jason Bergtold earned the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, Less than 10 Years Experience. The Outstanding Extension Program Award was presented for the OSU-KSU 2014 Farm Bill Decision Tool and Educational Program. The affiliated faculty from K-State are Art Barnaby, Rich Llewelyn, Robin Reid and Mykel Taylor of the K-State agricultural economics department. Brady Rundel also received an Outstanding Senior award.

At the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association award session, Nathan Hendricks received the Outstanding American Journal of Agricultural Economics Article Award for the article, "Crop Supply Dynamics and the Illusion of Partial Adjustment." Vincent Amanor-Boadu was voted the inaugural chair of the Africa Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Ji Yong Lee, doctoral student, earned a travel grant from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Trust.

Allen Featherstone, department head, began his term as a new director of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Executive Board. His role will include establishing and conducting policies for the organization.

"Specifically, the directors are working on providing mentoring opportunities for young professionals, improving communication to the general public and communicating with granting agencies on the importance of economics when they are looking at food, agricultural and environmental issues," Featherstone said.

The following is a list of the department's conference participation. Read more about the conferences that faculty and students of the agricultural economics departments are affiliated.

K-Staters and the title of poster presentations from the conference:

• Ana Claudia Sant’Anna, Gabriel Granco, Jason Bergtold, Marcellus Caldas, "It is All about Location?: An Analysis of the Factors that Affect the Location Decision of Sugarcane Processing Mills in Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil."

• Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, Kansas State University, and Koichi Yamaura, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, "Radioactively Contaminated? Seafood Preferences among Japanese after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster."

• Krishna Pokharel and Nathan Hendricks, "Estimates of the Incidence of Agricultural Subsidies Using Soil - Climatic Regimes."

• Melissa McKendree, "Step One to Understanding the Vote-buy Gap: A Look at County Level Outcomes in Recent Ballot Initiatives." Co-authors include Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University; Jayson Lusk, Oklahoma State University; Franklin Norwood, Oklahoma State University; and Kathleen Brooks, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

• Xia Shang and Glynn Tonsor, "Comparing Forecasting Ability of Demand Systems Using Different Data Sources: the Case of U.S. Meat Demand with Food Safety Recalls."

• Veronica Pozo and Ted Schroeder, "Evaluating Spillover Effects of Red Meat and Poultry Recalls across Firms."

• Xianghong Li and Tian Xia, "Why Do Manufacturers of Leading National Brands Produce Private Labels for Food Retailers?"

• Sandra Contreras and Yacob Zereyesus, "Does Time Allocation Really Matter for the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture? An Evaluation of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index WEAI."

• Teklay Embaye Weldensie, Nina Lilja and Nathan Hendricks, "Sorghum Research and Poverty Reduction under Trade Distortions in Ethiopia."

• Dustin Pendell, USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, "Economic Impact of Reducing Bovine Respiratory Disease in United States Beef Cattle Feedlots."

• Rulianda Wibowo and Allen Featherstone, "Are Irrigated Farms More Efficient than Non-irrigated Non-tillage Farms and Non-irrigated Conventional Farms for a Sample of Kansas Corn Farmers?"

Presenting papers at the conference:

• Elizabeth Canales Medina presented "Estimating Farmers' Risk Attitudes and Risk Premiums for the Adoption of Conservation Practices under Different Contractual Arrangements: A Stated Choice Experiment." K-State co-authors include Jason Bergtold, Jeffery Williams and Jeffrey Peterson.

• Ji Yong Lee presented "Strategic Bidding in a Private Value Experimental Auction with Positive and Negative Bids." John "Sean" Fox is a co-author.

• Mykel Taylor is a co-author of "A Bayesian Learning Approach to Estimating Unbalanced Spatial Panel Models." Anton Bekkerman, Montana State University, presented the paper.

• Nelson Villoria and Michael Delgado are co-authors of "Fine-scale Land Use Allocation Using Maximum Likelihood." Additional co-authors are Jingyu Song and Paul Preckel, both from Purdue University.

• Nicolas Quintana Ashwell presented "Aquifer Depletion in the face of Climate Change and Technical Progress." Jeffrey Peterson is a co-author.

• Krishna Pokharel presented "On the Examination of the Reliability of Statistical Software for Estimating Logistic Regression Models." Jason Bergtold and Allen Featherstone are co-authors.

• Steven Ramsey presented "Neural Network Estimators of Binary Choice Processes: Estimation, Marginal Effects, and WTP." Jason Bergtold is a co-author.

• Melissa McKendree presented "Similarities and Differences of Animal Welfare Perceptions between Cow-calf Producers and the U.S. Public." Co-authors are Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University, and Christopher Wolf, Michigan State University.

• Kayode Ajewole presented "Japanese Consumer Preferences toward GM Foods after the Great East Japan Earthquake." Co-authors are Koichi Yamaura, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, Kansas State University.

• Graciela Andrango presented "Extension Agents’ Preferences on Teaching Methods: An Ordered Probit with Selection Model." Jason Bergtold is a co-author.

• Elizabeth Yeager presented "Student Performance and Perception of Course Transformation." Angelika Zissimopoulos, Purdue University, is a co-author.

• Siny Joseph, K-State Salina, presented "Transforming Teaching Culture through an Interdisciplinary Faculty Teaching Exchange Program." Jung Oh and Patricia Ackerman are co-authors.

• Frank Nti presented "NAFTA at 20: Structural Change in Mexican’s Demand for US Meat Products."

• Mykel Taylor presented "Wheat Outlook."

• Hikaru Hanawa Peterson presented "Introduction to ‘Agriculture of the Middle’" and "Challenges and Opportunities."

• Melissa Lynes presented "Renewable Energy Policy Impact on Utility Plant Production and Cost Efficiencies." Allen Featherstone is a co-author.

• Brian Briggeman presented "Distributing Patronage Income under Differing Tax Rates and Member Risk Preferences."

• Krystal Drysdale presented "Effects From a Farmer-led Collective Action Water Management Plan on Irrigators in Kansas." Nathan Hendricks is a co-author.

• Nathan Hendricks presented "Cropland Acreage Response to Price: Challenges from Data Measurement Errors and Government Programs." Emrah Er is a co-author.