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