Workshops

• Pre-Conference Workshops
  • Extension Agricultural Education Tour
  • Fundamentals of Spatial Economics
  • The 2007 Young Professionals Teaching Academy
• Post-Conference Workshop
  • Discrete Choice Methods

Pre-Conference Workshops

Extension Agricultural Education Tour
Sponsored by the AAEA Extension Section

Visit commercial farms and nurseries in the Willamette Valley, about an hour south of Portland. Tour a farmers market, field crops, hazelnut orchards, a commercial nursery, a vineyard and winery, and Stahlbush Island Farm (an innovative commercial operation focusing on sustainable agriculture with organic crops). Hear about land use issues between commercial farming and sand and gravel mining in the area. Lunch and refreshments on the bus will be provided.

Nestled between the Coastal and Cascade mountain ranges, the fertile region of Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a popular destination ever since the mid-1800s when settlers traveled the Oregon Trail looking for the "Promised Land." Farms generating some of the Northwest's best produce, wines, and meats dot the countryside, leading to bustling metropolitan cities and leading research institutions.

From pine trees to grape vines, the Willamette Valley's vast landscape is one of the most diverse in all of the Northwest. The region is a mix of family-owned farms, historic communities, and natural wonders. It has the distinction of being the birthplace of Oregon's world-class wines, and is home to breathtaking gardens, acres of wildflowers, organic produce, and vigorous hiking trails. The extraordinary beauty of the valley's natural environment makes the region one of the most popular and scenic areas in the state of Oregon.

Join AAEA's Extension Section on what promises to be an incredible Agricultural Education Tour. Space is limited.

Contact information for workshop organizers:
Bill Jaeger, local organizer
wjaeger@oregonstate.edu

Fundamentals of Spatial Economics
Sponsored by:

• The AAEA Community Economics Section
• Rural Studies Program, Oregon State University
• Rural Policy Research Institute
• The Ohio State University Swank Chair
• Oregon State University Castle Professorship
• Department of Resource Economics, University of Nevada at Reno
• Economic and Community Systems Unit of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)
• Farm Foundation.

The primary objectives of this workshop are to enhance the capacity of applied economists in all disciplinary specializations to incorporate spatial economics into their research and teaching and to strengthen the role of agricultural economics as the lead profession in rural economics. New developments in urban economics may hold promise for understanding rural development, and new developments in rural economics can help urban economics. This workshop focuses on new developments in spatial economics - particularly those of relevance to rural development - engaging both economists and agricultural economists at the cutting edge.

This workshop's presenters come from applied economics and regional science departments engaged in pioneering and fundamental research in spatial economics: Gilles Duranton, University of Toronto; Sukkoo Kim, Washington University; Philip McCann, University of Waikato, New Zealand and University of Reading, UK; Mark Partridge, The Ohio State University; Junjie Wu, Oregon State University.

This workshop also serves two particular needs of rural and regional economists within the agricultural economics profession. This workshop seeks to address the need for disciplinary enrichment for many new "rural/regional economics" faculty as well as provide an environment in which the new and established faculty in this discipline can redefine the scope and focus of their work to better incorporate spatial dimensions.

This conference is for you if you are a faculty member or graduate student working in the disciplines of resource, environmental, agricultural, marketing, agribusiness, consumer, rural/regional, or community economics seeking to better incorporate empirically-testable, micro-foundations-consistent spatial economics into your research and teaching.

Contact information for workshop organizers:
Bruce Weber, lead organizer
Bruce.weber@oregonstate.edu

J. Matthew Fannin
mfannin@agcenter.lsu.edu

The 2007 Young Professionals Teaching Academy
Sponsored by the AAEA Teaching, Learning, and Communication Section and the AAEA Graduate Student Section

For the second year in a row, the Teaching, Learning, and Communication Section (TLC) and the Graduate Student Section (GSS) are sponsoring the Young Professionals Teaching Academy. This year's program will feature more opportunities for discussion and dialogue. The main presenters for this session include: Molly Espey (Clemson University); Andrew Barkley (Kansas State University); and Mary Marchant (Virginia Tech).

Three specific topics will be discussed at the 2007 Teaching Academy:

• Active Student Learning
• Diverse Student Learning Styles
• Managing the Classroom

Graduate students, new assistant professors, and those AAEA members interested in improving their teaching skills will gain a teaching edge after participating in the 2007 Teaching Academy.

The 2007 Academy features a highly interactive program utilizing three speakers and a facilitator. A combination of informal and organized discussion will be used to provide an educational program for graduate students and faculty interested in teaching. The Teaching Academy will describe innovative teaching programs in applied economics and management for present and future teachers and discuss teaching in a focused, yet informal environment.

Contact information for workshop organizers:
Michael Boland
mboland@ksu.edu

Post-Conference Workshop

Discrete Choice Methods
Sponsored by the Economic Statistics and Information Resources Committee

Participants in this workshop receive a hands-on learning experience about the state-of-the-art techniques in the development and estimation of discrete choice methods. These methods, which include conditional logit and the more recent mixed logit, are used extensively in agricultural and natural resource economics. Participants will implement each method on real-world data using PCs that are provided in the workshop room.

The facilitator, Dr. Kenneth Train, is known both as a leading expert on the topic and an excellent teacher and the author of: Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation, Cambridge University Press, 2003. He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Richard Stone Prize in Applied Econometrics. The development of discrete choice methods are at a critical juncture and the use of these methods in applied work is highly valued. An excerpt from Dr. Train's introduction summarizes the stage of development of these models:

"The first-generation models contained important limitations that inhibited their applicability and realism. These limitations were well recognized at the time, but ways to overcome them had not yet been discovered. Over the past twenty years, tremendous progress has been made, leading to what can only be called a sea change in the approach and methods of choice analysis. …The way that researchers think about, specify, and estimate their models has changed. Importantly, a kind of consensus, or understanding, seems to have emerged about the new methodology." (op cit, p.1)

In the past, Dr. Train's estimation codes were in Gauss-a very expensive software to use in teaching. He has now written code in the less expensive Matlab, which will be loaded on laptops for the workshop. This workshop will explore, using a hands-on method, the use of Matlab and will give attendees a great step up on use of the software for discrete choice estimation.

Attendees should provide an e-mail address at the time of registration to receive final details regarding the conference.

Contact information for workshop organizers:
Mary Ahern, ESIRC Chairperson
mahearn@ers.usda.gov