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General Information

About Our Faculty
Our 18 faculty members strive for excellence in both teaching and research. In addition , four faculty members provide extension programs, working directly with the public.

Faculty members have been honored on many occasions for their outstanding teaching, research, and extension programs. Additionally, our graduate students have achieved numerous recognitions, including Outstanding Thesis awards from the WAEA, AAEA, and Food Distribution Research Study.

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Research Opportunities
The faculty place substantial emphasis on involvement of students in research efforts. Because of the close ties between teaching and extension faculty and the diversity of Arizona agriculture, the Department can offer students wide-ranging opportunities for field research and exposure to "real world" problems.

Production and marketing research deals with a wide range of commodities, including irrigated field crops, livestock, and numerous fruit, nut, and vegetable crops. Research projects include analysis of futures markets, food loss from farm-gate to retail, minimum tillage systems, modeling of yields for rating crop insurance contracts, and demand for organic foods. Natural resource problems are the subject of numerous research projects, including safe drinking water, water conflicts in the West, the economics of takings, climate forecasting in Brazil, and reallocation of resources to environmental demands.

The importance of international markets to Arizona farms and agribusinesses has created strong support for research in international trade and development. Recent projects include the role of non-tariff barriers in trade and the impact of exchange rates on commodity prices.

International research projects have been undertaken to study poverty assessment and alleviation in Kenya, impacts of structural adjustment in Brazil, cross-border agribusiness development between Mexico and the United States, and the effects of improved infrastructure on household food security in Bangladesh. M.S. and Ph.D. candidates are often involved in field research efforts. Other opportunities for foreign research are provided by affiliations with outstanding agricultural economics programs in Italy (Portici, Naples) and Portugal (University of Lisbon).

Finally, the Department offers students considerable exposure to pertinent research through numerous seminars offered each semester by leading researchers from domestic and foreign institution. In addition, a Department brown bag seminar series allows faculty to discuss current research projects.

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Support and Facilities
The Department is located in the Economics Building at the very heart of campus. Graduate students are provided office space within the building and have access to the Department's reference room with an extensive collection of journals and government documents. Recently renovated classrooms provide enhanced learning using the latest multimedia technologies.

Students also have unlimited use of the Department's microcomputer lab, which includes numerous up-to-date PCs, high speed connections to the Internet, email, and related technologies, and powerful statistical and econometric software packages. In addition, there is access to mainframe and even supercomputers through the Center for Computing and Information Technology (CCIT). Computer support is available from knowledgeable staff within the Department. The University also holds numerous workshops and classes to help students learn about computers, the Internet, and software.

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Affiliate Programs
The Department maintains a number of ties with other departments and institutes on campus. Most prominent among these is the linkage with the Department of Economics. The Department of Economics has achieved substantial recognition in recent years, particularly for its programs in Experimental Economics, Industrial Organization, and the Economics of Public Choice. The faculty includes such renowned economists as Vernon Smith, Lester Taylor, and Gordon Tullock. The Agricultural and Resource Economics Ph.D. program is administered jointly with the Department of Economics, and all candidates take the theory and econometrics sequences with Economics Ph.D. candidates.

Other programs and offices that offer opportunities for students include the Karl Eller Center for the Study of the Private Market Economy, the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, the Arid Lands Resource Sciences Program, and the School of Renewable Natural Resources.

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