Agribusiness Economics Courses | 2024-2025 Graduate Catalog | SIU

Relations of common-law principles and statutory law to land tenure, farm tenancy, farm labor, farm management, taxation, and other problems involving agriculture. Restricted to junior standing or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Designed to improve the techniques of agribusiness economics workers through discussion, assignment, and special workshops on problems related to their field. Emphasis will be placed on new innovative and currently developed techniques for the field. Special approval needed from the chair.

Credit Hours: 1-6

This course is offered in cooperation with the National Corn-to-Ethanol Laboratory and provides a comprehensive introduction to the management and operation of an ethanol facility as well as overview of today's biofuels industry. Topics include: ethanol industry trends and bio-fuels future, corn-to-ethanol production processes, operations control and management, products and co-products, and environmental topics.

Credit Hours: 3

Students will understand the importance of entrepreneurs to the food, agriculture, and rural economies; learn characteristics common to successful entrepreneurs; prepare a business plan; use information resources to support a business plan; and become proficient in developing professional reports using information technology software. Prerequisite: ABE 350 or 351 or 360.

Credit Hours: 3

Students will study the application of socioeconomic principles to problems related to natural and environmental resources. The course covers the policy context within which policies related to natural and environmental resources are developed and implemented as well as the range of policy tools available for addressing environmental/natural resource problems. The institutional setting for dealing with natural and environmental resources is presented along with the role of property rights and entitlements. Contemporary resource problems are used as examples. Prerequisite: six hours of agribusiness economics, economics, or geography; graduate status; or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Economics principles and methods are used to examine economic and policy issues relevant to energy production and use. Topics include: key aspects of energy supply, demand, markets, and regulation; environmental externalities of fuel production and use; the relationships among energy use, economic growth and the environment; alternative energy sources. Prerequisite: 6 hours of agribusiness or general economics, geography, or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Application of production economic principles and modern decision-making techniques to farm management problems. The importance of information, sources of agricultural risk and management of risk in farm planning will be integrated. Prerequisite: ABE 350 or equivalent and University Core Curriculum mathematics required.

Credit Hours: 3

Principles and practices of rural and farm appraisal. Applications of sales comparison, income capitalization and cost approaches for estimating market value. Consequences of environmental liabilities and regulations on appraisal practices. Understanding of special valuation methods for buildings, insurance, assessments, loans and condemnations. Prerequisite: ABE 350 or consent of instructor. Field trips not to exceed $10.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced topics on small agricultural business management accounting practices and financial management are taught to gain knowledge on advanced financial record keeping and financial business management. Financial statements are analyzed with an emphasis on managerial accounting. This is a three credit-hour course taught on a 50-minute lecture format on three days each week. In addition, students would learn advanced record keeping in Quickbooks, an accounting software installed in the labs. Prerequisite: ABE 351 with a grade of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

Application of mathematical programming to agribusiness and farm planning, including enterprise selection, resource allocation, least cost ration formulation, decision making under risk and uncertainty, transportation and location problems. Emphasis placed on modeling problems and interpretation of results. Restricted to junior standing or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

The focus is on the measurement and interpretation of factors affecting agricultural prices. Methods to analyze the seasonal, cyclical, and trend components of commodity prices are presented. Formal forecasting techniques, including an introduction to statistical and regression methods, are used and explained. Emphasis is placed on the presentation, communication, and evaluation of forecasts in a business environment. Students are given an opportunity to perform applied price analysis and present the results. Prerequisite: ABE 318, 362 or equivalent.

Credit Hours: 3

Examination of agribusiness firm management with emphasis on the management and control of financial resources and the interrelationship between the agribusiness firm and human resource management. Other topics in agribusiness will include effective communication in the management process, business ethics, and workable credit programs for customers. Prerequisite: ABE 351 and 360 or equivalent.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced treatment of marketing issues from both theoretical and practical decision-making perspectives. Marketing margins, intertemporal, and spatial price relationships are reviewed in detail. Historical and current grain and livestock price series are utilized in decision-making exercises. Prerequisite: ABE 362 or equivalent.

Credit Hours: 3

Application of Industrial Organization and Strategic Management (Competitive Strategy) principles to address economic and managerial issues related to agriculture and food industries. Particular emphasis on applying those principles to explain structural changes taking place in the agriculture and food supply chain in the United States. Prerequisite: ABE 204, 350 or 360, ECON 240.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of resource allocation in the agribusiness firm. Production decisions, agricultural product price analysis and decision making models are considered. Student cannot receive credit for ABE 471 if credit has been received for ABE 571. Prerequisite: six hours of agricultural economics or economics. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An analytical survey of agricultural policy issues including agricultural price and income stabilization; international trade, capital and credit, the structure of agriculture and the quality of life in rural areas. Student cannot receive credit for ABE 472 if credit has been received for ABE 572. Prerequisite: six hours of agricultural economics or economics or instructor approval.

Credit Hours: 3

Research methodology as used in agriculture, including research problem definition, hypothesis formation, research design specification and development of research proposals. Both survey methodology and applied techniques, i.e. multiple regression and time series models, for developing and evaluating agricultural economic models are investigated.

Credit Hours: 3

This course's primary objectives are for the student to gain a firm understanding of the fundamentals of environmental decision making, to be able to communicate conversantly across disciplines in a policy setting and understand the role integrated modeling plays in environmental management. In this course, case studies in U.S. environmental history and policy will be used to provide the student with context for how past environmental decisions have set the template for contemporary natural resource management and policy. Topics to be covered in this course include regulatory approaches, market-based environmental management, structured decision making, federalism, water rights, and river management.

Credit Hours: 3

Students are introduced to economic growth and development theory at an intermediate level. Topics include trends in development in North America and study of theories. The economic theories covered address how growth occurs in developed economies including classical and neoclassical, central place and endogenous growth theories among others. Students who have completed ABE 444 are ineligible to enroll. Prerequisites: 6 hours of agribusiness or general economics, geography, or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Students are introduced to regional economic methods at an intermediate level. Students will learn concepts and tools commonly used in regional and community economic analysis. Students will learn to use regional input-output analysis and more technical regional economic models designed to capture spatial economic variables. Students who have completed ABE 445 are ineligible to enroll. Prerequisite: ABE 444 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced topics on small agricultural business management accounting practices and financial management are taught to gain knowledge on advanced financial record keeping and financial business management. Financial statements are analyzed with an emphasis on managerial accounting. This is a three credit-hour course taught on a 50-minute lecture format on three days each week. In addition, students would learn advanced record keeping in Quickbooks, an accounting software installed in the labs. Prerequisite: ABE 351 with a grade of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of resource allocation in the agribusiness firm. Production decisions, agricultural product price analysis and decision making models are considered. Student cannot receive credit for ABE 571 if credit has been received for ABE 471. Prerequisite: six hours of agricultural economics or economics. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An analytical survey of agricultural policy issues including agricultural price and income stabilization; international trade, capital and credit, the structure of agriculture and the quality of life in rural areas. Student cannot receive credit for ABE 572 if credit has been received for ABE 472. Prerequisite: six hours of agricultural economics or economics. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Seminar on current research and issues in agribusiness economics on topics such as farm management, farm policy, agricultural marketing, farm finance, agricultural prices and international agriculture.

Credit Hours: 1-4

Supervised work experience at the graduate level with a public or private agency or firm through which a graduate student can acquire practical professional training to complement their academic course work and research.

Credit Hours: 1-3

University residential graduate study program abroad. Prior approval by the program is required both for the nature of program and the number of semester hours of credit.

Credit Hours: 1-8

Readings in specialized topics under the direction of an approved graduate faculty member. Graded S/U only.

Credit Hours: 1-4

A research/teaching experiential learning course designed to allow the student to gain practical research development, classroom management and/or mentoring experience under the guidance of an assigned faculty member. A typical experience may include such activities as assisting a faculty member with class project design and management, assisting in research proposal development, or participating as a mentor in the College of Agricultural Sciences 121 (Ideas to Investigation) initiative.

Credit Hours: 3

Directed research in selected topics under the supervision of an approved graduate faculty member. Graded S/U only.

Credit Hours: 3

Work in the research for and presentation of a thesis under the supervision of an approved faculty member. Graded S/U only.

Credit Hours: 1-6

For those graduate students who have not finished their degree programs and who are in the process of working on their dissertation, thesis, or research paper. The student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research, or the minimum thesis, or research hours before being eligible to register for this course. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1