Organized Symposia

Organized Symposium sessions highlight ideas or works-in-progress on a topic involving cooperative or competing efforts by two or more panelists. Symposia may involve panel discussions of prepared questions, debates, roundtable meetings, or other formats. Formal paper presentations are discouraged, nonetheless if such presentations are proposed, the organizer should explain how they will fit into a tightly coherent theme. At least half of the session time will be reserved for discussion among the panelists and between the panelists and the audience. Symposia may offer discussions of policy issues, research methods, emerging research results, teaching or outreach topics, issues in professional organization, or other matters.

Organized Symposia are concurrent sessions. Each concurrent session is 90 minutes in duration. Other concurrent sessions include, Selected Paper Sessions, Lightning Sessions, Organized Symposia, Track Sessions, Invited Paper Sessions, and Invited Case Study Sessions.

2018 Organized Symposia

(Click below to jump to session information)

• Agricultural Baseline Models and U.S. Farm Policy
• Can Citrus Industry Survive Citrus Greening (HLB) Disease?
• Assessing Damages from Natural Disasters: Data, Tools and Methods for Rapid Response
• International Nutrition Security Priority Setting for the 21st Century
• AJAE Volume 100: Reflections on a Century of Publishing the Frontiers of the Profession
• Complex Pricing by Multi-Product Firms: Experimental Evidence on Firm, Consumer, and Regulator
• Accommodating Diverse Cultural Backgrounds among Instructors and Students: Challenges, Reflections, and Suggestions
• Guest Worker Programs in Agriculture: Drivers of Change
• The community-business tipping point: change, resilience, and progress
• Renegotiating Trade Agreements: Implication for Agriculture
• Applied Economics for Practical Policymaking
• State and Regional Climate Regulation

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Agricultural Baseline Models and U.S. Farm Policy

This symposium will review the economic assumptions underlying stochastic agricultural supply and demand models used by Congress, USDA, and academic institutions to evaluate U.S. agricultural policy. Negotiations on a new Farm Bill are underway in both the House and Senate, and these agricultural baseline models play a key role in answering policy questions related to costs to taxpayers, impacts on farmers and ranchers, and the supply and demand of agricultural products.

• Organizer: John C. Newton               
• Moderator: Mary E. Bohman                
• Panelist: Jim Langley, Joseph C. Cooper, and Patrick C. Westhoff

Can Citrus Industry Survive Citrus Greening (HLB) Disease?

Huanglongbing (HLB), a bacterial disease also known as citrus greening, poses a major challenge to citrus production worldwide and has become a highly visible market issue. In recent years, the disease has been rapidly spreading across the Americas, threatening the long-run sustainability of the citrus industry across the continent.  In the U.S., HLB has devastated the Florida citrus industry, where production has decreased by 80% and is at its lowest level in more than 70 years; the disease also presents an increasing threat to other major citrus producing states such as California and Texas. Across the Americas, the level of HLB infection and outlook varies.  In Brazil, the world’s top orange juice producer and exporter, it is estimated that about 20% of its citrus trees are infected with HLB.  This session will discuss the current HLB situation in the Americas, the lessons learned from HLB management, and its economic implications.

• Organizer: Jose A. Lopez, PhD  
• Moderator: Gustavo C. Ferreira, PhD                                    
• Panelists: Gustavo C. Ferreira, PhD, Ariel Singerman, Karen M. Jetter, Olufemi J. Alabi, Samuel D. Zapata, and Marcelo P. Miranda

Lessons Learned from HLB Management in Florida
Presenter: Ariel Singerman

HLB in California: Current Situation, Economics, Policies, Management, and Lesson Learned.
Presenter: Karen M. Jetter

HLB in Texas: Current Situation, Implications, Lessons Learned, and Economic Modeling                
Presenter: Olufemi J. Alabi

Lessons, Current Situation, Management and Economic Impact of HLB in Brazil
Presenter: Marcelo P. Miranda

Assessing Damages from Natural Disasters: Data, Tools and Methods for Rapid Response

2017 was the costliest disaster year on record in the U.S. with damage from disaster events culminating in losses exceeding $300 billion.  Losses in 2017 alone account for 20% of cumulative losses estimated since NOAA records on billion-dollar disaster events began in 1980 and are over 6.5 times the average annual losses for this time period. Land Grant Universities in many states, and specifically Applied and Agricultural Economics Departments are being asked to assist in loss estimation efforts for agricultural crops and natural resources with limited data, limited or no monetary support, and under severe time constraints.  The thrust of this symposium is to identify data, tools and methods currently used by applied/agricultural economists to respond to these requests, “state of the art” damage assessment tools, and the data and modeling tools needed to move from current tools to “state of the art”.

• Organizers: Rodney L. Clouser, Spiro E. Stefanou, C. Parr Rosson, III, and Mark L. Waller
• Panelists: David P. Anderson, Christa Court, Sandy Dall'Erba, and Rick Mueller

International Nutrition Security Priority Setting for the 21st Century

Agricultural development efforts in the 20th century reduced global poverty, raised staple food productivity and increased calorie consumption. In the 21st century, there remain widespread micronutrient deficiencies and continued energy deficiency among some population groups, even as overconsumption of macronutrients has grown rapidly to become the dominant new risk factor in public health around the world. Climate change, demographic shifts, and income inequality complicate efforts to address malnutrition.  This session presents new results on how the global food system has and will continue to change and differing approaches to identifying agricultural research and economic policy priorities. We begin the session with econometric analysis of past trends to 2015, and then turn to simulation modeling to 2050.  Econometric analysis of past trends includes changes in agricultural resources and production per worker, international trade and dietary intake per capita.  Simulation models explore future macro- and micronutrient availability using scenarios that combine biophysical and socioeconomic modeling and assess implications for biological and economic research priorities. Next we look at alternative approaches to priority assessment; from identification of global nutrient adequacy to how biofortification research has assessed priorities. Finally, researchers involved in country-specific work comment on how these more macro approaches to priority setting can contribute to country-specific assessments.

• Discussant: Derek Headey                     
• Moderator: William A. Masters
• Panelists: Gerald C. Nelson, PhD, Keith Lividini, and Winnie Bell

AJAE Volume 100: Reflections on a Century of Publishing the Frontiers of the Profession

This symposium will commemorate 100 volumes of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics as the leading field journal in agricultural and applied economics. It will begin with the presentation of a bibliometric analysis of the roughly 18,000 articles published since Volume 1 in 1919. This will set the stage for an interactive panel discussion with current and past AJAE Editors spanning the most recent 30 years of the journal. This distinguished panel will also look forward – and speculate about the future of academic publishing in the profession.

• Organizer: Travis J. Lybbert, University of California, Davis
• Presenters:
  • Travis J. Lybbert, University of California, Davis (Editor: 2016-19)
• Moderators:
  • Terry Hurley, University of Minnesota (Editor: 2018-21)
  • Timothy Richards, Arizona State University (Editor: 2018-21)
  • Timothy Beatty, University of California, Davis (Editor: 2016-19)
• Panelists:
  • William G. Tomek, Cornell University (Editor: 1975-77)
  • Gordon Rausser, University of California, Berkeley (Editor: 1984-86)
  • Steven Buccola, Oregon State University (Editor: 1992-94)
  • Kathleen Segerson, University of Connecticut (Editor: 1998-2000)
  • Madhu Khanna, University of Illinois (Editor: 2012-15)

Complex Pricing by Multi-Product Firms: Experimental Evidence on Firm, Consumer, and Regulator

Firms are increasingly using complex non-linear pricing strategies when marketing to consumers. Many policy-relevant questions related to multi-product pricing are simple to state, yet analytically intractable. Thus, lab experiments crafted to capture the essential tensions between sellers and buyers are invaluable for promoting our understanding of the mechanisms at play. This session presents results from three experimental studies on pricing complexity from the perspective of consumers, firms, and regulators.

• Organizer: Jeffrey D. Michler and Emilia Tjernström
• Discussant: Guanming Shi
• Panelist: Joshua Deutschmann, Jose Nuno, and Jeffrey D. Michler

Accommodating Diverse Cultural Backgrounds among Instructors and Students: Challenges, Reflections, and Suggestions

Diverse cultural backgrounds among faculty and students cast challenges in teaching and learning for both undergraduate and graduate students.  This symposium brings together panelists with diverse backgrounds and addresses the issue from both perspectives – the international instructor teaching domestics and the domestic mentor advising international students.

• Organizers: Na Zuo and Wen You, PhD
• Moderator: Wen You, PhD
• Panelists: Bruce A. McCarl, PhD, Holly Wang, Wuyang Hu, Na Zuo, Jerrod Penn, and Yanliang Yang

Comparison of domestic and international graduate Students in Agricultural and Resource Economic: a survey analysis
Presenter: Jerrod Penn

Guest Worker Programs in Agriculture: Drivers of Change

The H-2A agricultural guest worker program has expanded rapidly across the U.S. Panelists from the USDA/ERS and University of Florida (UF) have analyzed data from H-2A petitions and conducted several surveys of growers, workers, and other agricultural labor stakeholders with an emphasis on how H-2A workers are being used in the specialty crop industries.

• Moderator: Fritz M. Roka
• Panelists: Gulcan Onel, Derek Farnsworth, Zhengfei Guan, Diane E. Charlton, Thomas Hertz, Marcelo J. Castillo, and Travis Minor

The community-business tipping point: change, resilience, and progress

Recent research has proposed that there might be a community-business recovery and adaptation tipping point. Panelists will discuss how business recovery and adjustment to exogenous shocks, such as natural disasters, changing demographics, and changing industry dynamics, have occurred in the context of community adaptation to these same exogenous shocks.

• Organizer: Maria I. Marshall
• Panelists: Corinne Valdivia, George W. Haynes, Michael D. Wilcox, Jr., and Maria I. Marshall

Renegotiating Trade Agreements: Implication for Agriculture

The purpose of this proposed symposium is to discuss the implications of potential renegotiation of existing U.S. trade agreements for agriculture. This issue is extremely important for U.S. and global agriculture given the current political environment. Five expert panelists will be asked a series of prepared questions that focus on the major issues involving trade renegotiations. After responding, several questions will be elicited from the audience and responses will be provided by the panelists.

• Organizer: Troy G. Schmitz, PhD
• Moderator: Ian M. Sheldon
• Discussants: P. Lynn Kennedy, Andrew Muhammad, Luis A. Ribera, Daniel A. Sumner, and Thomas I. Wahl

Applied Economics for Practical Policymaking

Sponsored by: AERE & AAEA-ENV Section

The goal of this session is to spur a conversation between economists working in academia and those working in government agencies and nonprofits, covering topics such as: How does your work differ (or not) from that of an academic economist? How does published economic research get used in the policy process?  What are some specific and general research needs at your organization?  What misconceptions do academic economists have about how policy gets made?  What advice would you give academic economists to make their work more useful or relevant for policy?

• Organizers: Soren Anderson, Eli Fenichel, Derek Lemoine, Daniel Petrolia
• Panelists: Frank Casey, Al McGartland, Ruben Lubowski, Richard Newell
• Moderator: Daniel Petrolia

State and Regional Climate Regulation

Sponsored by: AERE & AAEA-ENV Section

The goal of this session is to update attendees on new policy activity (e.g., carbon pricing or adaptation planning) happening at the state and regional levels, and to discuss the political challenges and economic complications of subnational vs. national approaches.

• Panelists: Dallas Burtraw, Terry Dinan, Adele Morris, BBarry Rabe
• Moderator: Soren Anderson