IAAE2009 Program

Conference Theme

The New Landscape of Global Agriculture

Conference Sub-themes

1. New driving forces in emerging economies shaping the global agricultural landscape
2. The new economics and politics of market power in the agricultural and food industry
3. Global public goods and 21st century agriculture
4. The new landscape and the need for an extension to the agricultural economics toolkit
5. Energy and advances in technology

Conference Mission

There are strong indications and already evidence that the agricultural and food system as well as the rural areas across the world are experiencing major change. Increased urbanisation and the increased affluence in emerging economies combined with the demand for agricultural commodities for biofuels is changing the whole landscape of global agricultural and food systems as we used to know it. The current financial crisis and the recent food price crisis also provided a further realisation that the global agricultural landscape is indeed likely to be totally different. This International Conference of Agricultural Economists in Beijing in August 2009 is therefore not only dealing with these issues but at the same time providing the opportunity to think about the adjustments in our discipline needed to address these new emerging and likely more complex issues. Amongst other things this calls for an expansion of the traditional toolkit of agricultural economists. The question the conference should address is: Are we as agricultural economists equipped to deal with these complex problems and issues on our own? What are the principles and techniques and approaches from other disciplines we can use?

Overview of Conference Structure

Plenary Sessions

There will be 7 plenary sessions, one of which will be devoted to presentation of the best three contributed and best three poster papers.

Invited Panel Discussions

There will be two invited panel sessions, each with 7-8 concurrent panels. Presentations by invited speakers in the panels will be brief, and a substantial part of each session should be devoted to general discussion.

Contributed Paper Sessions

The paper selection for contributed papers (oral and visual presentations) is being organized by Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel, Bernhard Bruemmer, Shenggen Fan. Authors of selected papers will be notified by end of March 2009. There will be five contributed paper sessions during the conference period, each with between 12 and 14 parallel groups of four papers. It is expected that around 280 papers will be selected for oral presentation while a further 100 or so papers will be selected for visual presentation (posters).

Computer Sessions

The objective of the computer sessions is to publicise the availability of valuable software tools of which IAAE members may not be aware, or to demonstrate novel applications of better known software.

Best Oral and Visual Contributed Papers

The Friday morning plenary session will be devoted to the presentation of the best three papers in the oral and visual paper categories. The winners will receive the Theodore Schultz prizes.

Mini-Symposia

Mini-symposia are less structured sessions than those for invited panels or contributed papers and give delegates much greater opportunity to participate in discussion. These mini-symposia will be allocated a 2 hour slot in the programme and typically involve 3 to 5 short presentations (covering 60-100 minutes) all related to a common theme as a stimulus to general discussion.

Discussion groups

Discussion groups will also be allocated a 2 hour slot in the programme. The objective of the discussion groups is to stimulate open discussion with wide participation on topics of interest to the agricultural economics profession. The emphasis in these groups is on discussion and not necessarily the presentation of papers.

China Session

This session will invite high level Chinese agricultural policy makers and well-known experts to elaborate on the progress that China has made and historical changes taking place in Chinese agricultural sector, as well as how China to have solved the problem of feeding and dressing 22 per cent of the world's population by cultivating 7 per cent of the globe's arable land. It is expected that, combined with the field trips in the afternoon, this China session will help all the participants have a better understanding of Chinese agriculture, its past, its present and its future, including the challenges and constraints facing by the Chinese agriculture.

Plenary Sessions and Invited Speakers

Note: You may click the speakers' names for their c.v.

Plenary Session 1: Presidential Address and Elmhirst Memorial Address
Monday 17th August 2009: 11h00

• Presidential address: Agriculture's terms of trade: A personal reflection
  Speaker: David Colman
  Colman is Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Manchester, and was Director of the Farm Business survey for the North-West of England. He was Head of the School of Economic Studies at Manchester University from 1994 to 1997, and Head of the Agricultural Economics Department from 1980 to 1994. He is President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists until 2009, and was formerly President-elect 2003-2006 and Vice-President 2000-2003. He was President of the Agricultural Economics Society in the UK in 1994/95. He has acted as expert advisor to the House of Commons Agriculture Committee on a two occasions in relation to the dairy sector policy, and has been an expert witness and advisor in a number of court cases relating to the milk industry. David Colman has undertaken research projects and consulting contracts for various international bodies, including OECD, FAO, WHO, the World Bank, ODA, and the Canadian, Malawian, and Saudi Arabian Governments, as well as many contracts for Defra and MAFF. He is author of textbooks on the Principles of Agricultural Economics, and on Development Economics. His main areas of specialist research are in agricultural supply response, dairy sector policy (including the economics of quotas), price formation, and commodity modelling. He obtained a degree in agricultural science from London University in 1963, and higher degrees in agricultural economics from the Universities of Illinois (1965) and Manchester (1969). He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to agriculture. Although now retired from the University, David Colman is still actively researching and has recently led a large new project for DEFRA on "Phasing out Milk Quotas in the EU", and acts as a consultant on dairy sector economics.
• Elmhirst Memorial Address: Agriculture for development: Changing context and policy options
  Speaker: Alain de Janvry
  Alain de Janvry is an internationally acclaimed economist working on international economic development, with expertise principally in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. He has made notable contributions to poverty analysis, rural development, quantitative analysis of development policies, impact analysis of social programs, technological innovations in agriculture, microfinance, and the management of common property resources. His book Quantitative Development Policy Analysis, with Elizabeth Sadoulet, is one the most important textbooks on agricultural economics which has been written; it has a major impact on postgraduate teaching wherever that is provided. He is author of many other influential books and papers, including many on agrarian development in Latin America. He is a member of the French National Academy of Agriculture and a fellow of the American Agricultural Economic Association. He is a professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics and of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He was co-director of the World Development Report 2008, Agriculture for Development, which is a sure reflection of the great esteem in which his work generally held.

Plenary Session 2: New driving forces in emerging economies shaping the global agricultural landscape
Monday 17th August 2009: 13h30 – 15h30

This plenary session explores the driving forces from the largest emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries), Eastern Europe and Africa (especially South Africa) that could shape the global agricultural landscape. Many of these countries have experienced high economic growth in recent years. This together with increased urbanisation in many of the populous developing countries will also have a major impact on spending and consumer preferences - all likely to shape the new landscape of global agriculture.

• Role of institutions and organisations in renewing the global agricultural landscape: A perspective from Brazil
  Speaker: Decio Zylbersztajn
  Decio Zylbersztajn is a Professor of Economics and Organizations at the University of São Paulo. He was staff member of the Group of Agro-Industrial Studies of the Technological Research Institute before he joined the School of Economics and Business of the University of São Paulo. He is member of: International Society for New Institutional Economics, Brazilian Agribusiness Association, Brazilian Society of Agricultural Economics. He is "fellow" of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, former editor of the Business Journal of the University of São Paulo, former board member of International Society for New Institutional Economics. He teaches courses in Economics of Organizations, Strategy, Economics of Agroindustrial Relations, and Law, Economics and Organization. His research interests are in Law, Economics and Organizations, Contracts, and Transaction Cost Economics with application to agro-industrial corporate strategy. He organized and directed the Program of Agribusiness Studies at the University of São Paulo being now the President of the Counseling Board. He is the head of the Center of Studies of Law, Economics and Organization at the University of São Paulo. He is research associate of the National Council of Science and Technology, received the medal of Scientific Honor from the Government of the State of São Paulo and the best paper award of 2006, from the Brazilian Journal of Agricultural Economics. He is member of the board of Fundação ORSA, a Brazilian Nongovernmental Organization focused on education and development. He is member of the international advisory board of TRASFORUM, in the Netherlands.
• The big players of the former Soviet Union and world agriculture: Issues and opportunities
  Speaker: William Liefert, Eugenia Serova, and Olga Liefert
  Eugenia Serova obtained a PhD and Doctor of Economics (Moscow State Univ., Russia). Prior to joining Investment Centre in September 2007, served as adviser to the Russian Federation Minister of Agriculture, was also, since 1994 a team leader at the Institute for Economy in Transition ("Gaidar Institute"), President of the Analytical Centre on Agri-Food Economics and acted as Professor and Chair of Agricultural Economics at the Moscow Higher School of Economics. In the Soviet time worked in All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences and its institutes. Main expertise is in agricultural economics, agri-food policy and trade, farm cooperatives, land tenure and Russia's agrarian reform. Has extensive experience in carrying out and coordinating research on Russian agriculture, and in getting results heard in the policy process. Participated in work of many international organizations such as World Bank, OECD, IFPRI, was involved in policy formulation in Russia's agriculture, which included participation in drafting several laws and pieces of legislation. Was advising in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan.
• Indian Agriculture: Drivers of Change
  Speaker: Ashok Gulati
  Ashok Gulati is currently IFPRI Director in Asia based in IFPRI's New Delhi Office. During January 2001 to February 2006, he was Director of the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division of IFPRI in Washington D.C. Before joining IFPRI, Ashok Gulati was a NABARD Chair Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi; Chief Economist at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Delhi. Dr. Gulati has also been a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India; a member of the State Planning Board of Karnataka; a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; a member of the Board of Directors of ICICI Banking Corporation; and many other such positions. Dr. Gulati has done Masters in Economics and Ph.D. from Delhi School of Economics. His special areas of research include analysis and policy advice on issues related to agricultural markets and development of value chains; agriculture trade liberalization and negotiations in WTO with a focus on the likely implications on developing country interests; etc. Dr Gulati has published widely in national and international research journals, rendered policy advice to the Government of India, and interacted closely with the corporate sector involved in agri-business, the farmer groups, and the civil society organizations.
• Investments, subsidies and land-labor dynamics and China's new agricultural economy
  Speaker: Jikun Huang and Scott Rozelle
  Jikun Huang is the Director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research. He is also vice presidents of Chinese Association of Agricultural Economics and Chinese Association of Agro-Technology Economics, and Executive Committee Member of IAAE. His research covers a wide range of issues on China's agricultural and rural development, including work on agricultural R&D policy, water resource economics, price and marketing, food consumption, poverty, and trade policy.
• Ending Africa's food crisis: Technological, institutional and policy priorities
  Speaker: Akin Adesina
  Dr. Akin Adesina is Vice President at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He is a distinguished agricultural economist, with over 20 years of professional experience in African agriculture. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics (First Class Honors) from the University of Ife, Nigeria. In 1988 he obtained his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, USA, where he won the Best PhD Thesis Award for his innovative thesis work. He worked for a decade (1988-1998) in senior research positions in International Agricultural Research Centers (ICRISAT, WARDA and IITA) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. He has worked for the past decade (1998-2008) at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he served as Senior Scientist for Africa in 1998; Rockefeller Foundation Representative for Southern Africa (1999-2003); and as Associate Director (Food Security) at The Rockefeller Foundation, based in Nairobi, Kenya (2003-2008).
  He has published extensively on issues of agricultural development in Africa and he serves as reviewer for several international journals. He is currently the President of African Association of Agricultural Economists and an Executive Board member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. He helped to design, inspire and galvanize support of the international community behind the landmark Africa Fertilizer Summit, where 40 heads of states agreed to solve Africa's fertilizer crisis in the drive towards an Africa green revolution.
  He received an Outstanding Agricultural Economist Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association in recognition of distinguished academic and management contribution to the field of agricultural economics and international agriculture. He is a Yara Prize Laureate, which won in Oslo, Norway, for his leadership on the green revolution for Africa. He was recently awarded the Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award by Purdue University in USA, for his inspiring leadership in spearheading transformative change in African Agriculture.

Plenary Session 3: The new economics and politics of market power in the agricultural and food industry
Tuesday 18th August 2009: 8h30 – 10h30

It is sometimes argued that agricultural economists' work on market power of agribusiness is one of the areas where 'mischief has been done'. This session hopes to correct that perception. With the increasingly concentrated agricultural and food systems and the increasing dominance of large supermarket chains in national and global food chains, there is demand for more economic analysis on this issue and also a need for more evidence of the economic effects of the abuse of market power. Economic analysis is thus needed to show whether market power does bring welfare losses for producers as well as consumers or whether it has benefits such as cost reductions associated with economies of scale. Agricultural economists are increasingly getting involved in competition policy issues related to the food industry. It is therefore necessary to thoroughly review our empirical tools given that access to data for such empirical work becomes very restrictive.

• Antitrust economic analysis in food marketing channels
  Speaker: Ronald Cotterill
  Ronald W. Cotterill is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Economics, and Director of the Food Marketing Policy Center at the University of Connecticut. He has a joint Ph.D. in economics and agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Cotterill is an internationally known expert on the organization and performance of agricultural and food industries. He is editor of Agribusiness, a leading food and agricultural marketing research journal, has written more than 50 scholarly articles, coauthored or edited 12 books, testified before the US Congress and state legislatures on economic issues, and served as expert economist on over 20 antitrust matters for private firms and agencies including the United Kingdom Competition Commission, the New Zealand Commerce Commission, the US Federal Trade Commission; several US state Attorneys General and numerous private parties. His research on industrial organization and competition policy addresses issues of market definition, market power, price transmission, differentiated product pricing, cooperatives, mergers, price fixing, and monopolization.
• The UK Competition Commission's groceries market investigation: Market power, market outcomes and remedies
  Speaker: Peter Davis
  Peter Davis was appointed Deputy Chairman of the UK Competition Commission in 2006 and was previously on the Competition Commission's academic panel from 2004. He received a PhD from Yale and served on the faculty of MIT, before joining LSE, where he was Leverhulme Lecturer. His academic work includes contributions to the Journal of Law and Economics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Industrial Economics (JIE) and the RAND Journal of Economics. He currently serves as an associate editor of the JIE and also of Economica.
• Competition, efficiency, and the distribution of rents in global supply chains
  Speaker: Jo Swinnen
  Jo Swinnen currently is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at the University of Leuven (KUL). He is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels, and on the Programme Committee of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC). He was previously lead economist at the World Bank and economic advisor at the European Commission. He also consults for the OECD, FAO, EBRD, UNDP, IFAD, and to several Governments. He further acts as coordinator of several European research networks and projects on food policy, institutional reforms, transition, political economy, globalization and agricultural trade. His latest books are "Global Supply Chains, Standards, and the Poor", "Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in the Transition Economies of Europe and Central Asia", "The Political Economy of the Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy", and "From Marx and Mao to the Market". He is a fellow of the European Association of Agricultural Economists and holds a Ph.D from Cornell University.

Plenary Session 4: Global Public Goods and 21st Century Agriculture
Wednesday 19th August 2009: 13h30 – 15h30

The world economy of the 21st century is now much more open and integrated than before but despite this there are sharp divides, tensions, and conflicts. In this globalised world it is not only about, moving more goods and services into markets, fostering integration of international markets, and encouraging such private cross-border economic activity as trade, investment, transport, travel, migration, and communication. Events in one area of the globe often unleash repercussions that are felt around the world. As a result Global Public Goods defined as goods with benefits that extend to all countries, people, and generations are central to this new globalised society. Those that are critical to future agricultural systems include climate stability, environmental sustainability, food safety, disease control, and recently the more holistic concept of ‘biosecurity'. For all of these knowledge is a necessity and here international agricultural research, usually also defined as a global public good, still needs to play a critical role. Most of these public goods are intangible and are more "conditions" than concrete things. Their provision is thus difficult to monitor and verify, and so especially prone to running off course.

• Agriculture and global climate stabilisation
  Speaker: John Quiggin
  John Quiggin is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland. Professor Quiggin is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic policy. He has published over 750 research articles, books and reports in fields including risk analysis, production economics, and environmental economics. He has also written on policy topics including unemployment policy, micro-economic reform, privatisation, competitive tendering, and sustainable management of the Murray-Darling system. He was awarded the Thomson ISI Australian Citation Laureate for Economics in 2004. He is a Fellow of the Australian Social Science Academy, the American Agricultural Economics Association, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
• The financial crisis and the impact on the global agricultural landscape
  Speaker: Justin Yifu Lin
  Justin Lin is Professor and Founding Director of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University. He is currently serving as the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986 and is the author of 16 books, including The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform, which has been published in seven languages, and State-owned Enterprise Reform in China, which is available in Chinese, Japanese, and English. He has published more than 100 articles in international journals and collected volumes on history, development, and transition. Among many of his public roles in China, Professor Lin is Vice Chairman, Committee for Economic Affairs of the Chinese People's Political Consultation Conference and Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. He is Deputy to the Eleventh National People's Congress. He also serves on several national and international committees, leading groups, and councils on development policy, technology, and the environment. Professor Lin was awarded the 1993 and 2001 Sun Yefang Prize in Economics (the highest honour for economists in China), the 1993 Policy Article Prize by the Centre for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota, the 1997 Sir John Crawford Award by the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, the 1999 Best Article Prize by the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, the Citation Classic Award in 2000 (by the publisher of Social Science Citation Index), Docteur Honoris Causa by Université d'Auvergne in France in 2004, fellowship by the Academy of Sciences for Developing World in 2005, and other honours. Professor Lin was invited to give the 2007-2008 Marshall Lectures at Cambridge University from 31 October to 1 November in 2007.
• Global agriculture R&D and the changing aid architecture
  Speaker: Prabhu Pingali
  Prabhu Pingali is Deputy Director of Agricultural Policy and Statistics, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Formerly, Director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations. Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Associate in May 2007. He was the President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 2003-2006. He was elected Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association in 2006.

Plenary session 5: Best contributed papers
Friday 21st August 2009: 08h30 – 10h30

Plenary Session 6: The new landscape and the need for an extension to the agricultural economics toolkit
Friday 21st August 2009: 11h00 – 12h30

This session provides opportunity to illustrate how adjustments to the agricultural economics discipline can assist in addressing the new emerging and likely more complex issues in the new global agricultural landscape.

• Collective action and the commons
  Speaker: Elinor Ostrom
  Elinor Ostrom is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, and Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University Bloomington. In 1973 she co-founded The Workshop in Political Theory and Public Policy at Indiana University with her husband, Vincent Ostrom. Considered an expert on collective action, trust, and the commons, her institutional approach to public policy was considered distinct enough to be thought of as a separate "school" of Public Choice Theory (See Mitchell 1988). She has authored many books in the fields of organizational theory, political science, and public administration. Ostrom received her Ph.D. in political science from UCLA in 1965. She is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and past president of the American Political Science Association. In 1999 she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science and in 2005 received the James Madison Award by the American Political Science Association. In 2008, she received the William H Riker Prize in political science, and became the first woman to do so.
• Economics of conventions and the New Economic Sociology and our understanding of food quality and new food markets and trade institutions
  Speaker: Gilles Allaire
  Gilles Allaire was trained as Engineer-Doctor in Agronomics (University of Toulouse III) (Thesis: "Ecologic and cartographic landscape analysis", 1972) and holds a master degree in Rural Economics and Law (University of Toulouse I). He was teaching at the University of Toulouse II (Department of Geography) from 1971 to 1979, when he joined the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). He became Directeur de Recherches (Senior Researcher) at INRA, Rural Economics and Sociology Department, in 1992 (now SAE2 Department). He was elected several times at the Scientific Council of Rural Economics and Sociology Department. He teaches presently in several master classes in Toulouse (Rural development, Agrofood chain) and is president of the Scientific Council of the School of Agronomic Formation (ENFA) of Toulouse. In recent years he organized several national summer schools on studying institutions (with the CNRS). Gilles Allaire has been coordinator of several collective research programs on employment and development in rural areas; on the new functions of the rural, on innovation and market regulation. He took part in assessment of public programs regarding rural and environmental policies (notably the European Rural Development Reglement). He has also been the scientific coordinator of the European research program SINER-GI (Strengthening International Research on Geographical Indications: from research foundation to consistent policy) regarding the assessment of the relations of the policies supporting Geographical indications and sustainable development (www.origin-food.org). He participated in several field missions worldwide and organised several international seminars on that issue (2006-2008), in South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, Rome (FAO), Argentina, Chile, and Europe. Gilles Allaire heads (at INRA in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture)) an observatory (database and website) dedicated to the following up and assessment of rural policies.
• Modelling complex systems
  Speaker: Anastasios Xepapadeas
  Anastasios Xepapadeas is currently Professor of Economic Theory and Policy and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of International and European Economic Studies of Athens University of Economics and Business. He was Professor of Economics at the Economics Department of the University of Crete where he served as Chairman of the Economics Department and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. He is past president of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences He is editor of Environment and Development Economics, and associate editor of Studies in Non Linear Dynamics and Econometrics, he has served as co-editor of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and associate editor of Environmental and Resource Economics, and Water Resources Research. He has published more than eighty papers in leading journals including the American Economic Review; Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control; Journal of Environmental Economics and Management; Journal of Public Economics; Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Water Resources Research and written or edited eight books. His current research interests include spatial analysis of integrated ecological-economic models; economic growth and the environment; environmental policy and natural resource management; development of robust control methods in finance and resource economics; and evolutionary approaches in economic policy design.

Plenary Session 7: Energy, advances in technology and food prices
Saturday 22nd August 2009: 13h30 – 15h30

The global agricultural landscape will continue to be influenced by the increased production of and demand for bio-energy. At the same time the increased advances in technology especially mobile telephony (and general internet connectivity) - will impact on agricultural systems world wide in a variety of ways. As the global food price crisis unfolds agricultural economists will also carefully study how these new developments can impact on food price trends.

• The integration of energy and agricultural markets
  Speaker: Wally Tyner
  Wally Tyner is an energy economist with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University. He received his B.S. degree in chemistry (1966) from Texas Christian University, and his M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) degrees in economics from the University of Maryland. Professor Tyner's research interests are in the area of energy, agriculture, and natural resource policy analysis and structural and sectoral adjustment in developing economies. He has over 200 professional papers in these areas including three books and 65+ refereed papers and abstracts. His past work in energy economics has encompassed oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, biomass, ethanol from agricultural sources, and solar energy. His current research focuses on renewable energy policy issues. He teaches a graduate course in benefit-cost analysis, which incorporates risk into the economic and financial analysis of investment projects. In 2005, he received the "Distinguished Policy Contribution" award from his professional association. In June 2007, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana named Tyner an "Energy Patriot" for his work on energy policy analysis.
• Information Technology and Agricultural Development
  Speaker: Robert Jensen
  Robert Jensen is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and prior to joining UCLA was a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His research focuses on the microeconomics of international poverty and economic development, including topics such as gender, health, education, fertility, and the role of markets and private enterprise in promoting economic development. He has conducted and/or currently has ongoing survey projects in China, the Dominican Republic, Nepal and India. He has also served as an adviser to the International Labour Organization and the World Bank on a variety of topics including strategies to eradicate child labour and the design of social welfare programs.
• A retrospective and forward looking exercise on the global food price crisis
  Speaker: Shenggen Fan
  Shenggen Fan is the director of the Development Strategy and Governance Division (DSGD). A Chinese citizen, Shenggen joined IFPRI in 1995. His major research includes technical change, institutional reforms, productivity measurement, effects of government spending and development and poverty reduction strategies in developing countries. He led IFPRI's public investment program before the current position. Prior to IFPRI, he worked for the International Service for National Agricultural Research, and the University of Arkansas. He received his PH.D in applied economics from the University of Minnesota. Both of his B.S. and M.S. are from Nanjing Agricultural University, China.

Structure of Preliminary Program

Program Contact

Prof. Johann Kirsten
IAAE Vice-President: Programme

Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development
Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science
University of Pretoria
Pretoria
0002
South Africa

Tel: +27-12-4203248
Fax: +27-12-4204958
E-mail: johann.kirsten@up.ac.za