Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness
Researchers at the SLU Department of Economics conduct research and educate in the field of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness. There are four research groups working in that field: Agrifood policy and trade (Economics), Environmental and natural resource Economics (Economics) Value chain for food and fibers (Business administration) and Entrepreneurship and management (Business administration). In addition there is a group working with applied analysis of agriculture, food, fishing and rural development. The Department is located in Uppsala, with 78 employees, including seven professors, 28 PhD students and 23 teachers. Most of the teachers are also active researchers.
The Agrifood policy and trade group identify and develop economic solutions for problems concerning agricultural production and food consumption that farms, firms, consumers and decision makers face. The aim of the research work is to have optimally performing agricultural and food markets for societies in Sweden and globally. The research covers several themes, such as Agricultural and Food policies; Agricultural production; Media; Rural development; Structure of Food industry; Trade and Markets. The group also has specific experience from several countries: Sweden and the Nordic countries; European Union (EU); France; Canada; China; Macedonia (FYROM); Ukraine; Mediterranean and North African Countries (MENA); Germany; Transition countries.
The research group for Environmental and Natural Resource Economics is characterized by interest in and focus on research relevant for environmental policy. The conducted research is applied on several different environmental areas, regions and over different time horizons. Particular areas of research include: resource and environmental problems in developing countries, the Baltic Sea, its pollution and mitigation, effects of policy instruments on carbon emissions in a long-run context, expected developments in non-renewable resource prices, biodiversity (mainly alien invasive species), design of environmental policy for pesticides in agricultural sector, bioenergy and climate change, and carnivore management.
The Entrepreneurship and management group mainly studies rural entrepreneurship and the research often has a practical application. With the contribution from various branches of economics and management, the research in the entrepreneurship and management research group is able to embrace multiple areas, ranging from rural entrepreneurship, innovation, managerial decision-making and behavior, economic organization, cost of production, financial decisions, as well as structural aspects of small businesses.
With the contribution from various branches of economics, management and statistics, the research in the Value chain for food and fibers group is able to embrace multiple areas, ranging from the analysis of customer relations and complex food chain relationships, innovation and technological changes, to knowledge transfer, the relevance of policy intervention and regulations on the food sector, value creation and distribution, price transmission mechanism and firm management issues such as logistics and compliance costs, the impact of food safety and quality legislation and regulations. The research is aimed at integrating different specializations so as to effectively address the social, economic, environmental, institutional and policy challenges affecting the rural and the agro-food and fiber system, and to assure sustainability and competitiveness to the food and fiber systems and their actors.
The Applied analysis group works with economic analysis and evaluations of food, agriculture, fishing and rural development. The perspective can be both national and international and the main stakeholder is the Ministry of Rural Affairs. This demands policy relevance in the analysis. A specific responsibility is to secure the national competences on economic models: CAPRI and AgriPoliS Enviro to do quantitative analyses of the agricultural policy.
Apart from these groups in Economics and Agribusiness the Department has a group working with Agrarian history and a group working on Applied statistics and mathematics.
The Department is responsible for carrying out four undergraduate programs: Bachelor in Economics, Agriculture program Economics and Management, Environmental Economics and Management (MSc), and Agricultural Economics and Management (MSc). In addition we participate in an Erasmus Mundus consortium that provides a Master of Science in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis (AFEPA). In total more than 100 courses are offered at the Department.