2026-05 PAER: Graduate Student Research Issue

May 13, 2026

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Welcome to the Spring 2026 Purdue Agricultural Economics Report (PAER). This issue marks the fifth edition of our Graduate Student Research feature, showcasing the research and accomplishments of master’s and PhD students in the Department of Agricultural Economics.

In the first article of this issue, Dr. Carson Reeling, professor of agricultural economics and graduate program chair, presents an overview of the agricultural economics graduate program, including enrollment, job placements, program accomplishments, grants and awards.

The remainder of this issue highlights student research in two broad sections. The first section focuses on consumers’ willingness to pay and the rural economy. Master’s student Marley Heritier uses a best-worst scaling consumer survey to examine consumers’ preferences for chocolate attributes in Trinidad and Tobago. Next, PhD student Ivana Carrillo-Siller examines family and non-family small businesses in the Midwest and finds that females are more likely to be self-employed in non-family businesses, highlighting the important role of self-employment outside family firms. Laxmi Adhikari (editor for this issue) examines the state of employees’ mental health in rural America using an employee survey and finds that nervousness, restlessness and feeling that everything is an effort are the most common challenges reported by rural employees.

The second section presents research related to land use, the environment and policy. PhD student Binayak Kunwar studies the effect of state-led farmland acquisition for economic development, using Indiana’s LEAP District as a case study, and finds that public land acquisition increased local farmland prices. PhD student Lauren Benavidez-Brouk discusses methods for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from land conversion and changes in agricultural practices. Master’s student Anabeth Jennings discusses that phosphorus inefficiency largely occurs at the consumption stage, mainly due to food waste, and emphasizes the need for policies that reduce food waste to support phosphorus sustainability. Finally, we conclude this issue by including the abstracts from the departmental Outstanding Dissertation and Thesis Awards, recognizing Yuansen Li (PhD ’25) and Sampada Wagle (MS ’25), respectively.

On behalf of the editorial team, I hope you enjoy this collection of work by the graduate students in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics. Thank you for taking the time to read the PAER.

Laxmi Adhikari

PhD Student

2026 Graduate Editor for PAER 2026

Articles in this Publication:

State of the Agricultural Economics Graduate Programs in 2026

Carson Reeling, Graduate Program Chair, Professor of Agricultural Economics

Trinidad and Tobago Chocolate Consumer Market Study

Marley Heritier, Master’s Student; Kenneth Foster, Professor of Agricultural Economics; Nicole Olynk Widmar, Department Head and Professor of Agricultural Economics; Amanda Dickson

A Picture of Self-Employed Women in the Midwest

Ivanna Carrillo-Siller, PhD Student and Graduate Research Assistant

State of Employees’ Mental Health in Rural America

Laxmi D. Adhikari, PhD Student and Graduate Research Assistant; Bhagyashree Katare, Berdine Martin Food Economics Associate Professor; and Maria I. Marshall, James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics

State-Led Land Acquisition and Farmland Prices: Evidence from Indiana

Binayak Kunwar, PhD Student and Graduate Research Assistant; Chad Fiechter, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Finance; Guy Tchuente, Assistant Professor, Quantitative Methods in Spatial Analysis; and Aaron Shew, Chief Technology Officer at Acres

Approaches and Data to Quantify Global Soil Organic Carbon for Land-Use Agricultural Policy

Lauren Benavidez-Brouk, PhD Student; Farzad Taheripour, Research Professor of Agricultural Economics; Uris Baldos, Research Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics; Qianlai Zhuang, Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Agronomy; Shuo Chen, PhD Student

Phosphorus Embodied in the Global Food Supply Chain: The Role of Food Loss and Waste

Anabeth Jennings, MS Student; Maksym Chepeliev, Research Associate Professor

Extensions of the Synthetic Control Method to Multiple Dimensions

Yuansen Li, PhD Student

Immigration Enforcement, Labor Outcomes and Consumer Welfare: Evidence from U.S. Meat and Poultry Processing Plants

Sampada Wagle, MS Student

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Latest Articles:

The August 2026 CPI and PPI Reports: The Late-July Energy Spike Arrives, and the Food Pipeline Still Holds

September 16, 2026

Energy costs surged across both reports this month — diesel fuel up 24.1 percent, gasoline up 3.9 percent — in a single month. At the same time, food inflation sat almost exactly where it sat in July, and the most upstream producer-price stage swung through a wider range than the stage nearest the consumer has moved in three months combined. A real, measurable energy shock landing squarely in the data, alongside a food pipeline that barely moved, is the sharpest evidence yet for the thesis this series has been building since spring.

The August 2026 Beef Import Waiver: A Narrow Tool Aimed at a Narrow Problem

August 25, 2026

This is a targeted policy aimed at a narrow slice of the beef market — imported product for ground beef, much of which is lean processing beef — rather than a broad intervention in the fed-cattle market. It was announced in response to historically tight cattle supplies and unusually high beef prices. Within that narrow lane, the most plausible effect is some additional availability of lower-cost processing beef and some downward pressure on ground-beef prices.

The July 2026 CPI and PPI Reports: The Energy Shock Bypasses the Food Pipeline

August 20, 2026

Energy prices are 14.7 percent above year-ago levels, and yet the raw agricultural commodities that sit at the head of the food pipeline are cheaper than they were last July. That combination is the whole story of this month’s release — but it is not evidence that the energy shock missed agriculture.

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