Economics Along the Food Supply Chain

With training in agricultural economics, I have conducted research on production agriculture and markets along the food supply chain. Supported by a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, I analyzed livestock production and its markets in Inner Mongolia, China to complete my MS thesis. I have continued and broadened this strand of my research to examine food and agricultural markets, inventory management, and value added along the food supply chain.

A factor-income approach to estimating grassland protection subsidy payments to livestock herders in Inner Mongolia, China

with Joleen C. Hadrich, Brian E. Robinson, and Han Guodong, published in the Land Use Policy (2020)

This paper contributes to the growing literature on land use policies designed to prevent livestock overgrazing. It offers a straightforward factor-income approach to calculating payments for ecosystem services (PES) to livestock producers who reduce or suspend grazing for the purpose of grassland restoration. Our approach requires only cross-sectional farm-level accounting data and is thus feasible where policies have either not yet been applied or specialized data is sparse, as is common in many developing regions. We apply and validate this approach with empirical analysis of sheep and goat herders in the Ulanqab prefecture in Inner Mongolia, China where herders currently receive payments in exchange for reduced grazing intensity on vulnerable land. However, observed stocking rates are still commonly higher than recommended. Our results suggest payments are currently insufficient to offset the financial loss incurred by herders who reduce their grazing intensity, a finding consistent with previous studies. Using an approach we refer to as the factor-income method, we estimate and validate new levels of recommended payments. This demonstrates how future payments could be tailored to meet the financial needs of individual herding communities using basic farm-level data.

Working Papers and Works in Progress

J. Lowery, T.J. Richards, and A.T. Byrne, “Improving retail inventory management using food donations”

A.T. Byrne, *A. Heiman, and D.R. Just, “New insights into country of origin labeling (COOL): the effects of nationalism, patriotism, and xenophobia” (authors are listed alphabetically, *indicates corresponding author)

D. Dong, H. Stewart, A.T. Byrne, and M. Saavoss, “Changes in citrus demand and consumption”

Y.P. Chang, B. Rickard, A.T. Byrne, J. Lie, “Characterizing the non-alcoholic beverage market”

Grants and Fellowships

2023: Co-PI on Cooperative Agreement ($30,000) to study food landscapes on tribal lands
USDA Economic Research Service

2015: East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute in China ($5,000 award plus travel) to study livestock production and farmland policy
National Science Foundation