MSc Theses Titles
2023
- Rainfall Shocks and Agro-Dealer Maize Seed Sales: Farmer Adaption to Weather Risk
2022
- Consumers in Informational Settlements and their Water Source Choice from a Two-Season Survey in Freetown, Sierra Leone
- Future Growth in Global Meat Consumption: Three Income Scenarios
- Resilience in the Midst of a Pandemic: A Study of a Livelihoods Program in Rural Nepal
- Cash is Not Enough: Child Discipline, Humanitarian Assistance, and Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
2021
- Consumer attitudes and willingness to pay for plant-based meat products: A health and nutrition perspective
- Peace, Farm, and Food: The Effect of Peace on Investment and Food Consumption Decisions
- Consumer Willingness to pay for Legal and Illegal Cannabis Product in Illinois
- Valuation Tool for Food-Energy-Water Portfolio Outcomes
- The Relationship Between Financial Performance and Changes in Farm Size in Illinois Grain Farms
- Assessing Out-of-Sample Hedging Performance with Commodity Futures
- Evaluating the Potential for Plant-Based Meat to Capture the U.S. Meat Market
- Company Participation in Soybean Variety Testing Programs in Illinois
2020
- Testing the Accuracy of Machine Learning Methods to Predict Deforestation
- Value of Soil Sampling and Optimal Sampling Density for a Variable Rate Seed Application
- Metrics to Segment the Brazilian Agricultural Financial Market for Operating Loans
- Option Hedging Error in Commodity Markets
- Aspirations, Drought, and the Perception of Weather: How are Future Goals Affected by Severe Rainfall Shocks?
- Do Prices Drive Commercial Trader Positions in Grains and Oil Seeds Markets?
- How Does Dockless Bikeshare Impact Bus Ridership?
- Ambiguity and Credence Quality: Implications for Technology Adoption.
2019
- Implications of the New Capital Regulations for Farm Credit System Associations
- The Impact of Brazil on Global Grain Dynamics: A Study on Cross-Market Volatility Spillovers
- Demand for Certified Aflatoxin-Free Grains
- Drivers of Water Use in the Agricultural Sector of the European Union 27
- Impact of Plate Shape and Size on Individual Food Waste in a University Dining Hall Setting
- Influencers of Surplus Food Donations at Institutions of Higher Education
2018
- A Crop Simulation Approach to Estimate the Value of On-Farm Field Trials
- Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Motivations and Efectiveness
2017
- US Yield Forecasting Using Crop Condition Ratings
- Race, Income, and Benefits from National Parks
- Valuing Chicago's Beaches Across Race and Income
- Determinants of Soybean Adopotion and Performance in Northern Ghana
- The Impact of Electricity Access on Education in Kenya
- Investigating the Heterogeneous Effects of Temperature on Economic Grown
- Consumer Willingness to Pay for Lettuce from Different Agricultural Production Systems
- Are they Lemons? Unobservable Quality, Information and Mineral Fertilizer Demand
- Building Capacity of Rural Youth and Extension Workers in Agriculture as a Business: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Malawi
- Cost and Timeliness of Alternative Nitrogen Applications Methods
- Where Trees Grow, Assets Grow: Applying Spatial Matching to Evaluate Agroforestry's Household Welfare Impacts in Kenya
- Impacts of Crop Insurance on Cash Rents
- Revealed Willingness to Pay for Conservation across the U.S.
- The High-Low Spread Estimator is not Well-Behaved in Commodity Markets
- Impacts of Sustainable Streets on Housing Prices: A Hedonic Analysis in Chicago
- Impacts of Pesticide Use Practices and Gender on Cowpea Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Benin
2016
- Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Fresh and Frozen Vegetables
- The Components of the Bid-Ask Spread: Evidence from the Corn Futures Market
- Can Volatility Based Technical Signals Capture Consistent Abnormal Equity Index Returns?
- Does U.S. Food Aid have Disincentive Effects on Production?
- Shale Gas Development and Respiratory Health
- The Impact of Information on Animal Product Consumption
- House Prices and School Choice: Evidence from Chicago's Magnet Schools Proximity Lottery
- Homeowner Willingness to Pay for a Pre-flood Buyout Agreement
- The Effect of Intermediary Market Power on Grain Prices in India and Brazil
- Oil Prices and Regional Trade in the United States
- Food Insecurity in the U.S.: Measurement and Evaluation
- Market Efficiency in the Soybean Complex
2015
- Relationship Marketing in Agribusiness: A Case Study
- Regional Employment Change - Task change, Occupations and Industries
- Water Security in Refugee Host Communities: Syrian Refugees in Jordan
- Specifying the Structure of the Soybean-Meat Value Chain: A Taxonomical Approach
- An Investigation of the Relationships Among Home Gardens, Dietary Diversity, and the Nutritional Status of Children Aged 0 to 5 in Indian Households
- How Do CKWS Respond to Performance-Based Incentives? The Case of Ugandan Community Knowledge Workers
- An Economic Analysis of a Mechanized Systems Approach to Cassava Production in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Understanding the Price of DDGS
2014
- Passing on Dietary Diversity? Livestock Ownership in the Copperbelt Region of Zambia
- Peer Effects in Agricultural Extension: Evidence of Endogenous Social Interaction In The Performance of Community Knowledge (Extension) Workers in Uganda
- Optimization of a Supply Chain Network for Bioenergy Production from Food Waste
- Value Creation in the Agri-Food Value Chain
- Land Use Allocation in Zhangjiakou City Under A Spatial Autocorrelation Perspective
- Maize Response To Fertilizer And Fertilizer-Use Decisions for Farmers in Ghana
- The Effects of Landscape Factors on Honey Bee Morbidity
- Total Factor Productivity of Tropical Soybean-Maize Systems: The Case Of The Safrinha Crop System In Mato Gasso, Brazil
- Assessing the effectiveness of renewable specific policies on global renewable energy development
- Do improvements in environmental performance lead to job loss?
- Tradable Permit Systems for a Spatially Heterogeneous Externality: A Microparameter Approach
- Roll Related Return in the S&P GSCI Excess Return Index
- Developing a Farm Income Projection Model for Illinois Farms to Determine Advantages of the Agricultural Act of 2014's Farm Safety Net options
2013
- Participation in a Household Energy Audit and Retrofit Subsidy Program
- Post-Harvest Loss in Tropical Soybean Systems: Brazilian Managers' Perceptions and Mitigation Strategies: Two Manuscripts
- Determinants of Illinois Farmland Prices
- Access Versus Choice: Testing the 'Food Deser' Construct in Champaign, IL
- The Impact of Crop Insurance Participation on Farmers' Use of Marketing Contracts
- Crops, Pesticides, and Honey Bee Disease
- The Impact of Livestock and Gender on Household Expenditure Patterns in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia
- Biodiesel Profitability and Linkages to the Soybean Oil Market
- The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Consumption of Rural Households in Peru
- Fundamental Price Analysis of Renewable Identification Numbers
- Remote Sensing, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Crop Yield Forecasting
- You Can’t Squeeze Blood out of a Turnip: Misconceptions of Commodity Investments and Their Disappointing Returns
- Energy Usage of Agricultural Machinery for Corn and Soybean Production in Brazil, India, USA and Zambia
2012
- The Persistence of Business Performance in Sample Soybean Farms from Mato Gross and Illinois
- Two Essays on Food Security in Zimbabwe
- An Analysis of the Gender Composition of the Consumer Economics Major Over Time: A Case Study of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- The Effects of Agricultural Market Liberalization and Commercialization on Household Food Security in Rural China
- Basis Convergence in the Soybean Futures Complex
- The Impact of Rainfall Variability on Agricultural Production and Household Welfare in Rural Malawi
- Weak Information Flow Challenging Reproductive Management Decision-Making along the Swine Reproductive Value Chain: Three Manuscripts
- Determinants of Facility Level Environmental Inspections
2011
- Asset Dynamics and the Long-Term Impact of Microfinance in Rural Bangladesh
- Welfare Effects of New Fire Blight Control Methods on the U.S. Apple Industry
- Is Subsistence Enough? Examining the Impact of Household Farm Biodiversity on Dietary Diversity in Bukidnon, Philippines
- The Relationship Between Formal and Informal Employment in South Africa
- The Effects of Financial Structure on the Profitability of Illinois Agriculture
- Water Quality Trading: Credit Stacking and Ancillary Benefits
- An Evaluation of Alternative Transfer Designs for the Nicaraguan Red de Proteccion Social
- EU Import Notifications as a Protectionist Move: An Examination of the Relation Between Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers in Seafood Trade
- Spatial Dynamic Groundwater Regulation to Ensure Adequate Instream Flows for Salmon
- Ex-ante Analysis of Corn and Soybean Revenue in Illinois with Crop Insurance and Government Payment Programs
- A Spatial Analysis of Corn and Soybean Yields and Weather Relations
- Rins and the Ethanol Supply Chain: An Alternative View
- Development of a Family Agribusiness Transition Planning Tool
- Costs of Maintaining the Conservation Reserve Program in Illinois in the Presence of Biofuels
- Two Essays on Stress and Obesity: Household and Regional Perspectives
2010
- An Economic Analysis of Small-Scale Biodiesel Production in Sierra Leone
- Conversion from Staple to Cash Crop Production in Mexico after NAFTA: Effects of PROCAMPO and Credit Constraints
- Estimating the Value of Groundwater in Irrigation
- Returns to Farm Real Estate: Analysis of an Illinois Farmland Portfolio
- Evaluating Yield Models for Crop Insurance Rating
- A Mathematical Model for Political Districting with Compactness Consideration and an Application to Kentucky Senate Districting
- Marketing and Crop Insurance: A Portfolio Approach to Risk Management for illinois Corn and Soybean Producers
- Biomass Energy Crop Production and Residential Pellet Consumption in the Midwestern U.S.
- The Performance of Market Advisory Services in Feedlot Margins over 1995 - 2004
- Opportunities and Obstacles in obtaining air connectivity for the residents of federally designated Essential Air service communities
- Spatial Integration in China's Pork Markets, 1999-2009
- Managing Supply Risks in China's Food Industry: The Buyer's Problem
- A Spatial Analysis of Agricultural Cash Rents
- Asset Utilization Efficiency and Energy Asset Turns: A New Approach for Evaluating and Comparing Renewable Energy Projects
- Forecasting Diesel Fuel Prices
2009
- The Performance of Agricultural Market Advisory Services in Wheat Over 1995-2004
- The Impact of Income and Population Change in Sub-Provincial Chinese Meat, Egg, and Aquatic Product Consumption
- Household Adoption of Green Technologies: The Case of Chicago Rain Barrels
- Rural Eutopia: Can We Learn from Persistently Prosperous Places?
- Farm-Level Impacts of Alternative Spatial Water Management Policies for the Protection of Instream Flows
- Demand Side Factors in Optimal Land Conservation Choice
- Farmers' Expectations of Yield Differences between Triple-Stack and Conventional Corn Hybrids
- Trade Capacity Building for Improved Food Safety: Is SPS-Related Technical Assistance Consistent with Food Safety Hazards?
- Live and Feeder Cattle Options Markets: Returns, Risk, and Volatility Forecasting
- Evaluating Sampling Biases in Policy Analysis of Environmental Markets
- Water Demand in the Chicago Metropolitan Area
- Estimating the Non-commercial-Commercial Feed Gap in China and its impact on Future World Demand for Soybeans
2008
- Area Revenue Insurance as a Basis for U.S. Farm Policy in Major Wheat Producing Areas: A Potential Cost Savings?
- Understanding the Decision-Making Process for the Consumption of Landscape Products and Services
- The Forecasting Ability of CFTC Large Traders
- Valuing Beef Genetics: Hedonic Pricing of Heritable Traits
- The Link Between Food Security and Health among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Delhi, India
- The Economic Effects of Colony Collapse Disorder
- An Evaluation of Wasde and Futures Forecast Accuracy for the Season-Average Wheat Price
- Strategic Legitimacy Assessment: The Case of the Illinois Livestock Industry
2007
- Firm Level Responses to Dollarization in the Ecuadorian Export Cut Flower Industry
- Analysis of Farmer Attitudes Toward the Production of Cellulosic Feedstock for Ethanol Biorefineries: Characteristics and Consequences
- Trade Liberalization and the Fertility of Working Mothers: Evidence from Mexico
- Designing Appropriate Market Linkage Programs: Are Private and Cooperative Marketing Channels Compliments or Substitutes?
- Acceptability of Vitamin A-Biofortified Orange Maize to Urban Consumers in Maputo, Mozambique
- Weather, Corn and Soybean Yields, and Technology in the U.S. Corn Belt
- Why Have Some Counties in the Rural South Escaped Persistent Poverty? Socioeconomic Characteristics That Explain the Growth Out of Poverty
2006
- Consumer Behavior in Managing Body Weight Through Diet and Exercise
- Modeling the Impacts of Sow Longevity
- An Analysis of Farmers' Preferences for Lender Attributes
- Pressure Group Competition in U.S. Economic Sanctions Policy: An Empirical Investigation
- Weak Institutions, Intellectual Property, and the Seed Breeder's Problem
- An Empirical Investigation of Land Use Choice in the Leuser Ecosystem, Indonesia Using Discrete Choice Models
- Economic and Ecological Impacts on Fisheries Due to Invasive Species: A Spatial Analysis of Asian Carp in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers
- Ex-ante Analysis of the Economic Effects of Papaya Biotechnology in the Philippines
- Analysis of Post-IPO Stock Price Movements for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
2005
- An Evaluation of Forecast Accuracy and Sources of Forecast Errors in WASDE Balance Sheets for Corn and Soybeans
- A Farm-Level Analysis of the Expenses Involved with Machinery Sharing and the Most Recognized Options to Acquire the Use of a Combine and Headers
- Portfolio Diversification Using Farmland Investments
- Bargaining Power and Agricultural Household Supply Response: Evidence from Ethiopian Coffee Growers
- The Marketing Performance of Wheat Farmers in Illinois and Kansas