BUSA 3500 - Agricultural Economics

Description

This course provides the basic principles of agricultural economics. Production and consumer economics,agricultural policy, food marketing, futures markets, marketing of agricultural products, the farm services sector, and theworld food situation are topics to be covered.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the underpinnings of the U.S. agricultural economy and food production systems; recognize the efficiency and equity implications of alternative market structures as they relate to the agricultural sector.
• Understand the economic justification for public intervention in agriculture.
• Evaluate agricultural factor markets and assess outcomes given alternative factor demand and supply scenarios; understand how goals, constraints, incentives, and market rivalry affect economic decisions in agriculture.
• Understand the factors that underlie both the demand and supply functions in order to be able to analyze consumer and producer behavior.
• Determine relevant costs of production to determine the effective scale and scope of operations.
• Understand the structure-conduct-performance paradigm and how the nature of agriculture is affected by market structure.
• Understand the use of futures markets by agriculture and agribusiness to minimize risk exposure.
• Understand how a nation's agricultural economy affects economic development.