Agricultural and Applied Economics in the Resource Economics Department is about the marketing, finance, and economic aspects of agribusiness, all kinds of natural resource-based industries, and community & rural development. The major prepares you to manage an agribusiness, work as an international sales or marketing executive, as an officer in a bank, a market researcher, asset trader, professor, or government policy analyst, for example. It is also an excellent pre-law degree program.      

• helping to solve world hunger, or
• ranching, farming, or agribusiness, or
• making a difference in your community, or
• working with numbers that start with $ signs, or
• figuring out why people make the choices they do, or
• simplifying complex phenomena; quantifying hard-to-measure values, and
• working outdoors & indoors, with people & with computers, in Nevada &
• around the world, all in the same job,
  
  Then Agricultural and Applied Economics (AAE) may be the right major for you.
  

• The Resource Economics faculty research productivity ranks in the top four nationally, and the department is one of the ten nationally-ranked academic programs on the UNR campus.
    
• UNR-AAE student teams have won awards at the annual Western Collegiate Food Marketing Competition every year they have participated.
    
• It’s one of the most flexible bachelor’s degree programs on campus, with only 58 required major credits. There is a lot of room to choose electives or double-major.
    
• Great career preparation: by the summer after graduation, over 90% of Resource Economics department graduates are either employed or accepted to Law School or PhD programs.
   

• Finance and Credit Institutions
• Regional and Community Development
• Agribusiness management
• Economic or statistical analyses
• Sales and/or marketing
• Environmental and natural resources management

This minor program is designed for students who are interested in supplementing their major field with a background in agribusiness.

This minor is designed for students who are interested in supplementing their major field with a background in the economics of natural resource and environmental issues. The minor offers a program of study that includes a variety of topics such as cost benefit analysis, exhaustible and renewable resources, environmental externalities, property rights, and economic policy.

This minor provides a foundation for the use of statistical methods as a scientific tool for estimation and hypothesis testing. By emphasizing applications in the physical, life, and behavioral sciences, this minor should complement degree programs in most disciplines.

What’s the difference between CABNR Agricultural & Applied Economics and business school Economics?
       Most importantly, we focus on actual natural resource business and global issues, not only abstract ‘supply and demand.’ Our faculty is nationally-ranked for research. Our program is very personable: our student:faculty ratio is 3:1, one of the lowest on campus. We excel at the collection and analysis of quantitative information (applied math and statistics). This makes AAE graduates very successful candidates for careers and graduate schools.

What kind of salary do AAE grads earn?
      In 2005, the median annual income nationwide for economists was $73,700 (acinet.org). That’s higher than electrical engineers(!)

Are there any student clubs for AAE majors?
      Yes! The Sierra Nevada Resource Economics Organization (SNREO) is a student chapter club of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA). Each year the AAE student team participates in collegiate competitions and AAEA Student Quiz Bowl. Students also team up to undertake Enterprise Projects in which they market and sell CABNR crops to the public.

Will I get to know my professors?
      You sure can. The average AAE major class size is about 20 students. All courses are taught by faculty. The student:faculty ratio is 3:1. You can participate on research with faculty, who employ undergraduates as research assistants. Surveys of our department’s graduates show that about 95% rate the student-faculty interaction in our department good to excellent.

What do Agricultural and Applied Economists do?
      Applied economists work with people and with numbers in sales and marketing, farm, ranch or business administration, finance, and community development. They predict future trends or changes in what people buy, sell, employ, use, or invest in. They analyze how businesses and households react to new opportunities, regulations or policies. Three-quarters of our graduates go into careers directly related to the degree, as specialists in environmental and resource economics, policy, law, finance, agricultural economics, international business, marketing, and community development. A quarter go to graduate school or law school and may become professors or lawyers.

How do I prepare?
      High school students interested in applied economics should take a regular college prep curriculum, with four years of math including algebra, geometry, and calculus.

What courses will I take at the university?
      For the AAE major, you will study resource economics, international marketing, statistics, business management, land and water policy, econometrics, economic impact analysis, and decision management techniques. You will also complete the university core English, humanities, science, and math requirements. There will be plenty of time for electives of your choice (music, political science, journalism, anthropology…)

Dr. Tigran Melkonyan, Associate Professor, Undergraduate Program Coordinator and Faculty Advisor
Phone: (775) 784-6434
e-mail: tmelkonyan@cabnr.unr.edu
Office: 220f Fleischmann Ag Bldg, UNR Campus

 

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