Welcome to AREC

Welcome to the Oregon State University Agricultural and Resource Economics Department's (AREc) web site. AREc has a proud history of research and education in agricultural economics and was a leader in developing the resource economics field. A 2003 study of research productivity ranked AREc in the top 5 agricultural and resource economics departments in the nation.* More recently (2005), econphd.net ranked Oregon State in the top 10 in the world in resource and agricultural economics (www.econphd.net/rankings.htm).

We're particularly proud of our world class faculty. Rich Adams was selected for inclusion in the 4th edition of Blaug's, Who's Who in Economics. Rich joined his colleague Rolf Fare who first appeared in the 3rd edition of Who's Who in Economics and has been selected again for inclusion in the 4th edition. Rich and Rolf are two of only 1200 economists world-wide selected for inclusion.

The Department is home to four Fellows of the American Agricultural Economics Association—Rich Adams, Steve Buccola, Paul Barkley and Emery Castle and a Distinguished Scholar of the Western Agricultural Economics Association—Bruce Weber.

AREc consists of 22 faculty, 6 professional faculty and staff, 35 graduate students and over 175 undergraduate student majors linked by their dedication to scholarship and education. The department offers undergraduate degrees at the Corvallis campus and at Eastern Oregon State University in La Grande in Agribusiness Management (ABM) and Environmental Economics Policy and Management (EEPM).

AREc also offers both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, specializing in natural resource and environmental economics, international trade and marketing, rural economics and poverty, and productivity analysis and measurement. Historically, 60% of our Ph.D. degree recipients have been placed in academic positions. Many of these have gone on to become leaders in the profession including six Fellows of the American Agricultural Economics Association–Walt Armbruster, Sandra Batie, Bruce Beattie, Dan Bromley, Derek Byerlee and Alan Randall.

In addition to teaching, departmental faculty conduct extensive research and extension education programs focusing on the economic and policy dimensions of climate change, marine fisheries, endangered species, biodiversity, public lands management, land use, water allocation, water quality protection, agricultural and marine market structure and performance, agricultural competitiveness, international trade and policy, value-added agricultural products, productivity analysis and measurement, and rural economics, poverty and hunger.

I'm proud of our tradition of excellence, our outstanding people and our cutting-edge programs and I invite you to explore our web site. In it you will find information on AREc's faculty and the Department's undergraduate, graduate, extension and outreach programs and this link to Departmental Strategic Plan [PDF].

If you would like additional information about the department please contact me by phone at (541) 737-5639 or by email at Susan.Capalbo@oregonstate.edu

Sincerely,

Susan Capalbo
Professor and Head

* Hilmer, Christiana and Michael Hilmer, A Descriptive and Econometric Analysis of Annual Salaries, Gender, Experience, and Peer-Reviewed Publication Histories within Top-Ranked Agricultural Programs. Paper presented at the 2003 AAEA Annual Meetings, Montreal, Canada, August 2003.