MSU Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics  Graduate Education > International Development

Development Economics

Overview

The development economics (DEV) field emphasizes the economics of international agricultural growth and development with a focus on food security, productivity analysis, marketing policy, and the performance of the food supply chain. The field is a traditional strength of the Department and is supported by MSU’s long-standing international orientation and over fifty years of ongoing applied field research projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. These projects have focused on agricultural and rural development, marketing and food system performance, technology development, agricultural productivity, and food security. Interactions among technology, institutions, and policy receive special attention.

Faculty

Faculty members in the DEV field have special expertise in marketing and value chain analysis, food security policy, farm household economics, sustainable agriculture, agricultural technology development and transfer, rural nonfarm enterprises, land tenure, property rights, and other institutional aspects of economic development. Faculty working in the development field also collaborate extensively with faculty working on other fields across the Department, as well as with faculty and students from other departments across the University, including the Department of Economics.

Course Program

Courses in the DEV field focus on analysis of ways to stimulate and manage economic growth in food and agricultural systems and rural areas, with emphasis on realizing rapid economic transformations in low income countries. Study ranges from farm and market development to rural farm and nonfarm growth linkages. Attention is also given to macro issues related to agricultural transformation in economic development, and to the links between development and the natural environment. Course work focuses on the study of international economic issues related to agricultural production, marketing, trade and national food security. Students are also encouraged to build their expertise in key subjects such as marketing, production, and policy. Supporting study in other social sciences, technical agriculture, and quantitative methods is also recommended. Two graduate specializations relevant to students in this field are available: the graduate specialization in ethics and development, housed in the Department of Philosophy, and the graduate specialization in international development, administered by the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID) and jointly sponsored by the Women in International Development (WID) program.

Research

The Department is unique in terms of opportunities for graduate students to pursue field work in developing countries. Such field work is often done in conjunction with long-term projects such as those funded by U.S. Agency for International Development, including the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP and Food Security III. Other projects are funded by the World Bank, U.S. foundations, and projects in collaboration with international agricultural research centers. The research experience usually involves participation in project design, field data collection, collaborative activities with other research institutions, and outreach to developing country policy-makers and donors. Graduate students play a key role in implementing these international projects, thereby gaining invaluable international experience as well as research and research management experience. (See the Department research page).

Course Requirements

Ph.D. students with a major field in DEV take two required courses:

* AEC 861 Agriculture in Economic Development
* AEC 991 Advanced Topics: Agricultural Development Economics

In addition, the Ph.D. major requires choosing one additional course from the following menu.

AEC 930 Dynamic Models in Agricultural and Resource Economics
AEC 932 Information Economics and Institutions in Agriculture and Natural Resources

Masters students with an interest in development economics should put together a suitable course program in consultation with their major advisor and committee.

Other Courses of Potential Interest

In addition to the courses listed above there are other courses across the University that may be of potential interest to students with an interest in the field. These include:

AEC 810 Institutional and Behavioral Economics
AEC 865 Agricultural Benefit-Cost Analysis
AEC 874 Empirical Research Methods in Development Microeconomics
ACR 824 Sustainable Development
ACR 825 International Development: Strategy, Design and Implementation
ACR 826 International Development Theory and Practice
ANP 424 Culture and Economic Behavior
ANS 480 Animal Systems in International Development
EC 840 International Trade: Theory and Commercial Policy
EC 841 Exchange Rates and Capital Flows
EC 850 Growth, Development and Human Resources
EC 851 Domestic and Foreign Development Policies
FOR 450 Forestry in International Developing Countries
GEO 425 Geographic Information Systems
GEO 850 Seminar in Regional Geography
SOC 986 Survey Research Principles

Faculty

Rui Benfica, Associate Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 2006; agricultural development, food policy, marketing, poverty and inequality analysis.

Duncan H. Boughton, Associate Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1994; agricultural development, technology assessment, agricultural marketing and policy.
 
Eric W. Crawford, Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 1980; agricultural development, farming systems, technology assessment.

Andrew Dillon, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Cornell, 2008; agriculture, health, and nutrition, household labor supply, technology adoption and social networks, agricultural household models.

Cynthia Donovan, Assistant Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1996; agricultural marketing, policy, and development.

Thomas S. Jayne, Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1989; agricultural development, food policy, marketing.
 
Songqing Jin, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2004; land tenure, agricultural technology and agricultural research, rural non-farm employment, rural labor migration.

Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. University of Illinois, 2009; poverty reduction, social networks, agricultural input markets and productivity.
 
Scott Loveridge, Professor; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1988; economic development policy, land use, community systems, regional economics.
 
Mywish Maredia, Associate Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1993; impact evaluation of development programs, economic impacts of agricultural R&D, development of input systems (especially seed systems), the economics of science and technology policies, institutional capacity building.

Nicole Mason, Assistant Professor, International Development. Ph.D. Michigan State, 2011; food security, marketing and price analysis, rural livelihoods.

David Mather, Assistant Professor, International Development. Ph.D. Michigan State, 2003; agricultural development and marketing, poverty reduction strategies, impact assessment.

Robert J. Myers, University Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., Minnesota, 1986: commodity marketing and price analysis, agricultural finance, applied econometrics.

Thomas Reardon, Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1984; food industry/agribusiness in Asia and Latin America, value/supply chains, farm household economics, http://www.msu.edu/user/reardon/ReardonCV.pdf.

Mark Skidmore, Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance and Policy; Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1994; economic development policy, economics of natural disasters, public finance, regional and urban economics.

Melinda Smale, Professor, International Development; Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1992; technology adoption and impacts, farm productivity, survey research, crop genetic improvement.

Scott M. Swinton, Professor; Ph.D., Minnesota, 1991; production economics, bioeconomic models, firm-level environmental impacts.

Veronique Theriault, Assistant Professor, International Development; Ph.D., University of Florida, 2011; agricultural development, supply chain analysis, trade policy, and institutional economics.

David L. Tschirley, Professor, International Development; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1988; agricultural development, food systems economics, marketing.

Rafael Uaiene, Assistant Professor, International Development; Ph.D. Purdue University, 2008; agricultural productivity, technology analysis, policy, research and technology transfer.