J. Edward Taylor
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Professor and Director, Rural Economics of the Americas and Pacific Rim (REAP) 2107 Social Sciences & Humanities Office Hours: Mondays 2:00 - 3:00PM, Wednesdays 3:00 - 4:00PM Phone: (530) 752-0213 Fax: (530) 752-5614 |
Research Interest Statement
Teaching and Research Emphasis
My teaching and research are in the areas of Economic Development, Population and Resources; Labor Economics; Economy-wide Modeling; and Applied Micro-Econometrics. I teach the Ph.D. field course “Agriculture in Economic Development” emphasizing household, village, and economy-wide modeling. At the undergraduate level, I teach microeconomic theory, development economics and econometrics.
My research is concentrated in population, microeconomic development, and farm labor. The core of my work in microeconomic development has been the application of household-farm modeling techniques to the study of a range of economic problems in less developed countries, including internal and international migration, the adoption of new agricultural technologies, preservation of biodiversity, and nutrient demand. My early work was among the first to empirically test propositions of the new economics of labor migration. Building on household-farm models, I have developed micro economy-wide (including village) models utilizing computable general equilibrium techniques. Applications of these models explore impacts of migration, policy changes, and market reforms on rural economies in a diversity of less developed country (LDC) settings. Current projects utilize these modeling techniques to examine impacts of NAFTA and agricultural policy reforms on migration and incomes in village and village-town economies in Mexico and impacts of tourism in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and in the Bay Islands of Honduras. This modeling is supported by extensive household-farm surveys. In recent years my students have done Ph.D. and MS research involving a diversity of topics and regions that include Mexico, Central America, Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, China, Zambia, and Turkey.
The Center on Rural Economies of the Americas and Pacific Rim (REAP), which I founded and co-direct with Scott Rozelle, is a nexus for research and training programs focusing on the Pacific Rim. REAP has close ties with the Program for the Study of Economic Change and Sustainability in Rural Mexico (http://precesam.colmex.mx), which I co-founded with Antonio Yúnez-Naude at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City, and the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy in Beijing. These centers offer a unique base for students wishing to do thesis research in Latin America and Asia.
In addition to development economics research, I co-direct the “Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural America” project (www.migration.ucdavis.edu) and study impacts of immigration and other policy reforms on the supply of labor to U.S. farms and the economic welfare of California farm workers and the communities in which they live