Education

Ph.D., Agriculture and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, 1991
MSc., Agricultural Economics, U. of Sask.1988
BSA, Agricultural Economics, U. of Sask.1986

Research 

• Agricultural Marketing: R&D contracts & vertical coordination, supply chains

• Agriculture Policy Analysis: output-subsidy linkages, land markets, marketing boards

• Agriculture Risk and Insurance: crop insurance, credit markets, asset pricing

• Environmental Markets: carbon contracts, policy resonse to learning

Teaching Interests

• Price Theory, Industrial Organization, Agri-Food Marketing, Quantitative Methods

• Topics in Food Market Analysis AgEc 502

• Quantitative Methods Business and Resource Management FRE 385

• Managerial Economics Comm 295

Publications

See website
 

About

James Vercammen joined the Faculty July 1, 1991 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in July, 1996.

Born and raised on a family farm in Saskatchewan , Dr Vercammen completed a Diploma in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in 1978 before going farming himself. In 1983, he returned to the University and completed a BSA and MSc degree, both in Agricultural Economics, while continuing to farm. In 1988 he entered a doctoral program at the University of California , Berkeley , and completed a PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics in 1991. He has maintained a continuing interest in his family farm in Saskatchewan .

Dr Vercammen’s areas of expertise are agricultural insurance, food market policy analysis and industrial organization of food markets. As well as a special class on regulating food markets for senior undergraduate students, Dr Vercammen teaches courses in Agricultural Marketing and Quantitative Methods within the Faculty as well as a course in Managerial Economics in the faculty of Commerce.

His doctoral research concerned farm credit markets, particularly the effects of risk and asymmetric information on the structure of credit contracts. His interest in this area has continued in his present research where he is analyzing various aspects of farm safety nets. As well he has collaborated on various studies on agricultural marketing, including the pricing strategies of agricultural cooperatives, western Canadian grain transportation and optimal hedging strategies for agricultural producers in commodity futures markets. His current research interests include agricultural insurance, vertical coordination in agricultural markets and the economics of food safety. Dr. Vercammen is co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and serves on the Executive of the Western Agricultural and Resource Economics Association.

Among his publications are papers on agricultural marketing, crop insurance and agricultural policy in North American and international journals dealing with agricultural economics. He has also co-authored one book (The Economics of Western Grain Transportation and Handling) and several book chapters on agricultural marketing and policy.

R Blair 2001