Welcome to the Department of Economics

We are proud to be one of only a handful of departments nationwide that combine general economics and agricultural economics in one department. The department was organized in its current form in 1930, and has a long history of excellence in scholarship and education.

We offer B.S. degrees in Agricultural Business, Economics, and Business Economics, and both Ph.D and M.S. degrees in Economics and Agricultural Economics.  Through an active program of co-operative extension, we provide vital information and decision support to the citizens of Iowa. Our nearly forty faculty aspire to excellence in the production, dissemination, and application of economic knowledge.

We are committed to broadening participation in the economics profession by establishing a culture of belonging, in which each member of our community feels welcomed and valued (read the department's statement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging). As a department, we embrace Iowa State University’s Principles of Community. As part of this commitment, we believe that the honest and respectful expression of ideas that avoids ad-hominem criticism is the way to achieve excellence in all we do.


Upcoming Seminars

Department Events

Ask an Economist

Mar 11, 2024

Economists always consider it important to identify whether theoretical models effectively explain the real economy. Your question has also been a long-standing one for economists.

Feb 19, 2024

I commend your interest in Economics as a discipline.  Economics offers powerful insights about many aspects of the way society is organized and provides a helpful way of thinking about many contemporary policy issues.

Recent Working Papers

The Trade-off between Yield and Nitrogen Pollution under Excessive Rainfall: Evidence from On-farm Field Experiments in Iowa
Choi, Eseul; DePaula, Guilherme; Kyveryga, Peter; Fey, Suzanne

Cross-country Spillovers in Interbank Liquidity Crises
Singh, Rajesh; Hasan, Mohammad

Sovereign Debt Maturity Structure and Dilution
Singh, Rajesh; Hasan, Mohammad

Riverine nitrogen footprint of agriculture in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin: do we trade water quality for crop production?
Lu, Chaoqun; Zhang, Jien; Yi, Bo; Calderon, Ignacio; Feng, Hongli; Miao, Ruiqing; Hennessy, David; Pan, Shufen; Tian, Hanqin

Discretion rather than rules in multiple-species fisheries
Singh, Rajesh; Weninger, Quinn