Dr. Jaclyn Kropp
Associate Professor
Dr. Jaclyn Kropp is an associate professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2008. Jaclyn joined the University of Florida in August of 2012 and has a 60% teaching and 40% research appointment. Prior to joining the University of Florida, she was a tenure-track assistant professor at Clemson University. At the University of Florida, Jaclyn teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, including Advanced Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Finance, and International Agricultural Trade. Her research focuses on issues related to agricultural policy and agricultural finance, including the impacts of agricultural support programs on farm-level production decisions, how government support program participation affects access to credit, the role of trust in lending relationships, and the link between food assistance program participation and child obesity. Prior to earning her Ph.D., she worked as a financial advisor and hedge fund analyst
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Research
Two primary goals of U.S. agricultural policies are: supporting farm incomes and improving nutrition. Jaclyn's program examines the effects of agricultural policies designed to achieve these goals.
Impacts of agricultural policies on farm-level production decisions, international trade, and farm assets values
Jaclyn's research investigates the production/trade distortions that arise from agricultural support policies implemented after the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In an effort to comply with WTO obligations, member nations have replaced agricultural support policies in which farmers receive per unit subsidies granted to every unit of production with support policies that are not tied directly to current prices, yields or input use. Consequently, farmers in many developed WTO member nations now receive agricultural support payments based on historic rather than current production and/or payments on only a portion of their total production. When first introduced, it was believed that these payments should have limited impacts on production, and hence trade, since they do not alter the marginal production decision. However, these payments have the potential to influence current production by impacting farmers' risk preferences through wealth and insurance effects, altering input use, impacting access to credit, altering shutdown decisions and through expectations of uncertain future payments (i.e. because future payments based on today's current production, the farmer plants more acres today).
Jaclyn's research in this area builds on her award- winning Master's thesis and award-wining American Journal of Agricultural Economics article, in which she analyzes the impact of payments on only a limited portion of production on decisions to exit the industry. In the article, as well as in the subsequent works, she show that it is possible for WTO compliant policies to be more production, and thus trade distorting than the production-enhancing predecessor policies they were designed to replace. Jaclyn's research also examines the impact of these payments on access to credit and credit terms, and there impacts on fertilizer use as farmers tried to increase their yields to obtain larger payments in the future.
Jaclyn research also analyzes the impact of agricultural support payments on farm asset values. In 2011, she was an invited speak at a Federal Reserve Bank conference pertaining to raising farmland value. Specifically, she addressed the link between agricultural support and ethanol policies and raising farmland values in U.S. corn producing states.
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Teaching
Jaclyn teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
AEB 4138 – Advance Agribusiness Management is a required capstone course for the Food and Agribusiness Marketing and Management specialization within FRE. Seniors enrolled in the course actively co-manage a company through a semester-long on-line simulation game. While the course is essentially an upper-level finance course, the simulation requires students to also utilize skills learned in several prior courses including marketing and management. In addition to assignments pertaining to the simulation game, students complete 3-5 case studies (usually Harvard Business School cases) related to key financial concepts. These cases studies help students develop a better understanding of concepts to be applied to the simulation game. In addition, Jaclyn also frequently uses in-class games as a teaching tool.
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Education
- Ph.D Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University 2008
- M.S. Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University 2005
- B.S. Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University 2002
- Publications