Description:
As textbook authors go, we are relatively young. Capitalizing on our youth, this textbook brings a fresh approach to the subject of agricultural marketing and price analysis
at a time when we believe a new text is particularly warranted. Agricultural economics
departments have steadily evolved, but in different ways across universities. Some
agricultural economics departments have merged with economics departments or
changed their departmental names to include “applied economics” or “natural resource
economics.” For these departments, the distinction between agricultural economics
and economics applied to other topics is less clear. Others have decided to place greater
emphasis on agribusiness management and marketing. At these schools, lectures on
economic theory are being replaced by practical agribusiness management topics. As a
whole, agricultural economics departments today are less focused on the farm and
instead pay more attention to the agribusiness sector and the consumer.
Yet, most schools still offer courses in basic agricultural price analysis and agricultural marketing. Instructors are expected to cover all the traditional topics in
addition to emerging areas of research. An effective textbook therefore needs to
reflect these changes. Refocused academic priorities are not the only changes that
should be brought to bear on a textbook of this nature. With the greater prevalence of
computers in the workplace, college graduates should be prepared to conduct sophisticated data analysis. Student preferences for writing styles have also changed. It is a
commonly held belief that students are less inclined to read traditional textbooks;
yet we have found that these same students will read less formal economics texts
such as The Armchair Economist, Freakonomics, and Naked Economics with great
enthusiasm.
This textbook discusses the topic of traditional agricultural marketing and price
analysis, while being mindful of how the world has changed over the past several
decades. We focus some complex topics including general equilibrium models, game
theory, and econometrics; however, our aim in this book is to engage students with
very little exposure to economics and with only a basic grasp of algebra