As applied and agricultural economists, Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) members work to provide high quality research and data to inform policy decisions. How do we ensure that decision makers see, and use, our research findings or data in the policy formulation process that includes many actors? The paper provides a framework for how information flows during the policy process and a strategy for effective research and data built around five equally important attributes: relevance; quality; trust; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and communication. Examples illustrate how the attributes lead to high impact information and focus on two federal research and statistics agencies, the Economic Research Service and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The paper concludes with strategies and examples of metrics to measure the impact of research and statistics.
How best to incentivize land managers to achieve conservation goals in an economically and ecologically effective manner is a key policy question that has gained increased relevance from the setting of ambitious new global targets for biodiversity conservation. Conservation (reverse) auctions are a policy tool for improving the environmental performance of agriculture, which has become well-established in the academic literature and in policy making in the US and Australia. However, little is known about the likely response of farmers to incentives within such an auction to (1) increase spatial connectivity and (2) encourage collective participation. This paper presents the first framed field experiment with farmers as participants that examines the effects of two features of conservation policy design: joint (collective) participation by farmers and the incentivization of spatial connectivity. The experiment employs farmers in China, a country making increasing use of payments for ecosystem services to achieve a range of environmental objectives. We investigate whether auction performance—both economic and ecological—can be improved by the introduction of agglomeration bonus and joint bidding bonus mechanisms. Our empirical results suggest that, compared to a baseline spatially coordinated conservation auction, the performance of an auction with an agglomeration bonus, a joint bidding bonus, or both, is inferior on two key metrics—the environmental benefits generated and cost effectiveness realized.
The looming demographic cliff, characterized by a projected decline in college student enrollment, can have important impacts for the agricultural and applied economics profession, academic departments, and universities more broadly across the US. This decline will not only affect the financial stability and sustainability of many agricultural economics departments but also the number of high-skilled professionals available for the agricultural industry, government bodies, and academia. This article discusses the main factors leading to the demographic cliff, as well as potential strategies for curbing its negative impacts on the profession. In the face of this challenge, it is important to develop a thoughtful, proactive, and strategic approach, and to engage industry, government, and academic partnerships.
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