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Honors and Awards

3 Faculty Awarded AAEA Best Paper

people standing in front of a slide presentation

Three ARE faculty members were recently honored with the AAEA Applied Risk Analysis Section Best Paper Award for their outstanding contribution to applied risk analysis.

Assistant Professor Zheng Li, Professor and Extension Specialist Roderick Rejesus and Professor and Graduate Program Director Xiaoyong Zheng won the award for their paper, “Nonparametric Estimation and Inference of Production Risk.” 

image of paper award

Published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics in October 2020, the award-winning paper proposes a nonparametric procedure for evaluating factors influencing production risk. Li, Rejesus and Zheng demonstrate that the proposed approach is superior to traditionally used parametric methods in both simulated and empirical studies.

The authors applied the proposed residual-based nonparametric procedure to field trial data from Wisconsin to analyze how genetically modified corn varieties and planting density influence corn production risk. They documented the risk reduction effects of genetically modified corn varieties and suggested an optimal planting density that minimizes production risk.

The AAEA American Journal of Agricultural Economics publishes scholarly work on the economics of agriculture and food, natural resources and the environment and rural and community development throughout the world.

The awardees were honored at the AAEA Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California on July 31, 2022.

Congratulations, Zheng, Rod and Xiaoyong!

Visit our research page to learn more about research in the ARE department.