ISSN xxxx-xxxx (print) © Firenze University Press ISSN 2280-6172 (online) www.fupress.com/bae Bio-based and Applied Economics 1(1): 13-27, 2012 Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This? Paolo Sckokai Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy (paolo.sckokai@unicatt.it) Abstract. The scientific domain of «agricultural and applied economics» is an open issue. In this paper, we analyse the JEL codes of the articles published in seven major agricultural economics journals in the period 2000-11, in order to define which dis- ciplines and which research areas are the «core business» of today’s agricultural and applied economists. A special attention has been given to the sub-sample of the Italian studies, since a new scientific society in this area (AIEAA) has been recently founded by a group of Italian economists. Keywords. Agricultural economics, applied economics JEL codes. A11, Q10 1. Introduction The «Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics» (AIEAA), the new scientific society of which this review is the official journal, has chosen a name that may look rather strange, at least at a first glance. One may ask: what is agricultural and applied economics? How is its scientific domain defined? These are of course legitimate questions, which need an appropriate answer. It is well known that the founders of AIEAA have a long record of activity in the field of agricul- tural economics. Thus, why using two adjectives («agricultural and applied») to define its scientific domain? A first answer can be found in the AIEAA «mission statement»: a new scientific society related to the themes of agriculture and food is motivated by the radical change in the research objectives and in the methodologies characterizing the agricultural economics profession. This reflection on the new research agenda of agricultural economists is not new and is common to most international scientific societies in this area. In the last few years, sev- eral presidential addresses of the major agricultural economics associations have tackled the issue of redefining the role of the profession in a changing environment (see among others: Kinsey, 2001; Thompson, 2001; Brandt, 2003; Leon, 2005; Buccola, 2006; Doer- ing, 2007; Mittelhammer, 2009). This debate has led to some relevant changes: the most striking example is the American Agricultural Economics Association, which has recently redefined its mission statement and changed its name in Agricultural and Applied Econom- ics Association. Thus, the new Italian association (whose name is clearly not brand new!) seems to be in line with an international trend that aims to redefine the research mission of agricultural economists. 14 P. Sckokai Why is this needed? It is well known that the role of agriculture in modern economic systems has radically changed: while its role as sector producing a key item for human life remains central, its share in terms of total value added and employment has become extremely small as compared to a few decades ago. The same is true for the role of agri- culture in the food supply chain: the share of raw materials in the value of food items sold to final consumers is becoming smaller and smaller, since all services related to food production are gaining importance (processing, preparation, retailing, logistics, cater- ing, marketing and communication…). This obviously means that studying the economic problems related to food means studying all the elements of the supply chain, their verti- cal relationships, and their relationships with the rest of the economy, both at the national and at the international level. Issues like competition and market power in the food sup- ply chain, distribution of the valued added among agents, identification of the consumer needs, food safety and food quality are clearly at stake in the research agenda. The same is true for a range of issues having an international dimension, like world trade and prices of agricultural and food commodities or the contribution of agriculture and food production to economic development in the developing world. Another area of new research potentials is the relationship between agriculture, food and the natural environment. The environmental sustainability of agricultural and food production, given the massive use of key resources like land and water, the new cli- mate change challenges and the contribution of agriculture to the production of renew- able energy are research themes that show the strict linkages between agriculture, food, resource use and environmental protection. Thus, agricultural economists are facing new research challenges and an enlarged research agenda, which implies new methodological approaches, often interlinked with other scientific disciplines: from development economics to regional economics, from food technology to sociology, from management to industrial organization, from envi- ronmental and resource economics to energy economics. The objective of their research is also increasingly finalized to the definition of new public policies concerning the tra- ditional areas of agriculture, food, trade and rural development, but also the new areas of environment and energy. Thus, the dialogue between researchers and policy-makers becomes another essential element of the profession. The above considerations, largely elaborated by the AIEAA mission statement, are already a good rationale for enlarging the scope of a scientific society related to the themes of agriculture and food. Thus, the adjective «applied» has the role of synthesizing the interrelationships between traditional agricultural economics and a number of ‘sister’ disciplines. But nobody can deny that such adjective is rather vague and is not able to identify the key research trends in the ‘enlarged’ agricultural economics discipline. In his presidential address, Mittelhammer (2009) has already discussed how it is dif- ficult to identify the domain of «applied economics», since different definitions may apply. Nonetheless, comparing the content of a set of general economics vs. agricultural econom- ics journals, he concludes that the diversified research interests of agricultural economists are perfectly in line with a broad definition of «applied economics», that he summarizes as follows (page 1174): It is a richly varied collection of approaches for analyzing real-world economic issues that encom- passes all methods of analysis capable of being applied to economic data or issues, utilizes knowl- 15Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This edge of relevant history and institutions, and involves professional judgment, all of which is either combined with or guided by established economic theories or else transcends the existent body of economic theory and may contribute to and expand that body of theory. Nonetheless, defining precisely which disciplines and which research areas are the «core business» of today’s «agricultural and applied economists» remains an open issue. For this reason, this paper, building on the work of Mittelhammer (2009), analyses the content of the major agricultural economics journals, trying to identify the most relevant areas and trends in published research. A special attention is given to the contribution of researchers working in Italian institutions. The paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we present the methodology and the data used in the analysis, in section 3 we discuss the results, while in section 4 we draw some conclusions. 2. Methodology and data In order to identify research areas and recent trends in agricultural economics research, we have analysed the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes of all articles published in the period 2000-2011 in some selected journals. Most researchers in the broad field of economics are familiar with the JEL codes. This system classifies all research outputs in economics using a four-digit classification (Ameri- can Economic Association, 2012). The first digit (alphabetical letters) defines twenty pri- mary areas: the most important for agricultural economics is the area Q (Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics). The second digit defines a general topic inside the primary area (for example Q1 stays for «Agriculture»), while the third digit defines a specific research area (for example Q18 stays for «Agricul- tural Policy; Food Policy»); the fourth digit is not used in the present system (it is 0 for all research areas), but is available for future refinements of the classification. In total, 804 codes are available. All pieces of economic literature available in the JEL online database Econlit (articles, books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers and dis- sertations) are classified with at least one JEL code, although it is very common that each item is classified with more than one code, in order to facilitate the online search. In terms of journals, we have chosen to analyse seven major international agricul- tural economics journals: Agricultural Economics (AE); American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE); Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AJARE); Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics (CJAE); European Review of Agricultural Economics (ERAE); Food Policy (FP); Journal of Agricultural Economics (JAE). Why this selection? The 2010 edition of the Web-of-Science (WoS) Journal Citation Report (JCR) includes 14 journals in the category «Agricultural Economics and Policy», but the above seven are by far the most important and the most relevant for the profession. In fact, they are included in the WoS database since its establishment, they are the first seven in terms of citation indexes (Impact factor and 5-year Impact factor), although their relative ranking has changed over the last few years. For example, FP has taken the lead as most cited journal in the field, thanks also to its more pronounced interdisciplinary nature; the citation indexes of the other journals tend to fluctuate over time, with a clear increasing 16 P. Sckokai trend for all of them, except for the CJAE, which seems to have lost some appeal. Finally, all these journals, except FP, are official journals of one of the major scientific societies in agricultural economics: the International Association of Agricultural Economists (of which AE is the official journal), the European Association of Agricultural Economists (ERAE), the US Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AJAE), the UK Agricultural Eco- nomics Society (JAE), the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society (CJAE) and the Aus- tralian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AJARE). Thus, they should closely reflect the evolution of the «core business« of the profession, since the members of the above societies consider their official journals as reference outlets for their research. Of course, these seven journals do not cover the whole scientific production of agri- cultural economists, since their diversified research interests often lead them to publishes in specialised journals of other disciplines and sub-disciplines. This is probably the major limitation of the present analysis, which would be much more accurate if we could analyse publications of a selected number of authors that we can define «agricultural economists». Unfortunately, this type of authors’ classification is not available in any bibliographic data- base, and, even if one has available a list of members of the major scientific societies in the field, carrying out a name by name search is likely to be an impossible task. The second limitation is linked to how the JEL codes are chosen. Only a subsample of our seven journals (and, in general, of all economic journals included in Econlit) publish the JEL codes in the front page of each article; in this case, the JEL codes are chosen by the authors/editors and reflect their personal view of the topic(s) covered by the article. For all the other journals, the JEL codes are provided by the Econlit database managers, probably based on the content of the abstract and/or the keywords of each article. Thus, the classification is subjective and not homogenous among articles/journals, and this may lead to some inconsistencies. Moreover, since the main objective of Econlit is to facilitate the online search, there is no limit in the number of JEL codes attached to each article, and the order by which they are proposed does not imply any priority. Thus, each article cannot be uniquely classified in a given research area, namely a unique JEL code. For this reason, in our analysis each article is counted as many times as its JEL codes, thus contributing to the share of all research areas for which it has been classified. Again, this may have created some imbalances in our results. Finally, in some cases the JEL codes define a very specific research area, with no ambiguity, (i.e. Q22, defined as «Renewable Resources and Conservation: Fishery; Aqua- culture»), while in other cases they define a very wide and comprehensive research area (i.e. Q18, defined as «Agricultural Policy; Food Policy»). This implies that the latter are used to classify very different type of articles, that often have very little in common in terms of objectives, methodology and results, even though they share the same code. Again, this may create some imbalances in the results, with some comprehensive JEL code being overrepresented. In Table 1, we provide a classification of the articles considered in this analysis by journal and year. This data was downloaded at the beginning of September 2011, thus the last year is largely incomplete, especially for some journals, like the AJAE, for which data tend to be uploaded rather late in Econlit. Concentrating on the years 2000-10, for which all articles are available, one can clearly see that the total number of articles published each year in these seven agricultural economics journals has experienced a decline in the 17Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This years 2002-05, and an increase in the most recent years. In fact, if one compares 2000 with 2010, several journals have experienced a significant increase in the number of published articles (AE +36%, AJARE +59%, FP +54% and JAE +26%), the ERAE has remained sta- ble, while the two North American journals have experienced a sharp decrease (AJAE -19% and CJAE -39%). Despite this reallocation, the AJAE remains by far the leading journal in agricultural economics in terms of number of published articles, since it repre- sents one third of all the articles considered in the analysis. AE and FP contribute respec- tively for 18 and 14% of the total articles, while the other four journals have a share rang- ing between 7 and 10%. In Table 2, we present the number of articles with at least one author working in an Italian institution. Globally, the share of Italian articles is 1.9%, but such share is increas- ing over time: it is 1.3% in the 2000-05 period and it becomes 2.5% in the 2006-11 period. This trend is clearly encouraging, although, in absolute terms, the contribution of Italian researchers remains rather small. 3. Results 3.1 The most relevant research areas in agricultural economics The classification of the 3,897 agricultural economics articles by their JEL codes is provided in Tables 3 and 4 and is expressed in terms of shares with respect to the cor- responding totals. Of course, since each article carries more than one JEL code, it can be Table 1. Total number of agricultural economics articles considered in the analysis   AE AJAE AJARE CJAE ERAE FP JAE Total 2000 53 118 22 49 25 43 27 337 2001 63 127 25 42 22 34 28 341 2002 29 124 26 35 25 33 33 305 2003 43 131 23 24 22 33 24 300 2004 46 127 24 22 24 37 29 309 2005 68 111 22 28 25 35 24 313 2006 71 105 31 38 23 40 33 341 2007 64 108 28 35 21 38 35 329 2008 76 107 28 22 25 61 30 349 2009 64 135 33 32 24 62 36 386 2010 72 96 35 30 23 66 34 356 2011* 38 14 25 22 20 75 37 231 Total 687 1303 322 379 279 557 370 3897 Source: Econlit Note: the acronyms in each column represent the following journals: Agricultural Economics (AE); American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE); Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AJARE); Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics (CJAE); European Review of Agricul- tural Economics (ERAE); Food Policy (FP); Journal of Agricultural Economics (JAE). *Incomplete 18 P. Sckokai counted several times and the sum of the shares is always higher than 1. Considering the whole sample, it turns out that, as expected, the most important JEL codes are those that have a rather general and comprehensive definition of the corresponding research area: 23% of the articles are classified as Q18 (Agricultural and food policy), 22% as O13 (Con- tribution of agriculture, natural resources and energy to economic development) and 21% as Q12 (Microeconomic analyses at the farm level). Thus, papers are almost equally dis- tributed among these three categories, which represent the most important research areas in agricultural and applied economics. Considering Q18 first, researchers in agricultural economics seem to have a special focus on problems related to government intervention in the agricultural and food sec- tor. This is not surprising, since most countries, and especially developed countries, have a long history of intervention in this area, with a variety of instruments: from agricultural price support to direct payments to farmers, from traditional trade policies (tariffs and subsidies) to non-tariff barriers to trade, from food safety legislation to food quality pro- motion, from food labelling to animal welfare regulation. Thus, there is a wide set of stud- ies that can potentially hit one or more of these issues. Although for different reasons, it is also not surprising that many agricultural eco- nomics studies deal with the contribution of agriculture and some related sectors to eco- nomic development (O13): in developing countries the primary sector is still extremely relevant in terms of contribution to value added and employment, and can play a key role in development strategies. Finally, the third area of research by importance (Q12: micro- Table 2. Number of agricultural economics articles with at least one author working in an Italian insti- tution   AE AJAE AJARE CJAE ERAE FP JAE Total 2000 1 1 1 5 1 9 2001 1 1 1 3 2002 1 1 2 2003 1 2 3 2004 1 1 1 3 2005 1 1 1 1 1 5 2006 3 1 4 2007 1 2 1 2 1 1 8 2008 2 2 4 3 11 2009 3 2 3 2 1 11 2010 1 2 4 7 2011* 3 1 1 3 8 Total 10 14 0 4 18 12 16 74 Source: Econlit Note: the acronyms in each column represent the following journals: Agricultural Economics (AE); American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE); Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AJARE); Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics (CJAE); European Review of Agricul- tural Economics (ERAE); Food Policy (FP); Journal of Agricultural Economics (JAE). *Incomplete 19Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This Ta bl e 3. J EL c od es o f a gr ic ul tu ra l e co no m ic s ar tic le s by jo ur na l, 20 00 -2 01 1 (s ha re s ov er th e re sp ec tiv e to ta l i n % ) A E A JA E A JA RE C JA E ER A E FP JA E To ta l Q 18 A gr ic ul tu ra l P ol ic y; F oo d Po lic y 17 .0 17 .5 16 .1 22 .4 28 .0 41 .5 30 .0 23 .1 O 13 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: A gr ic ul tu re ; N at ur al R es ou rc es ; E ne rg y; E nv iro nm en t; O th er Pr im ar y Pr od uc ts 46 .1 11 .8 11 .5 4. 7 3. 9 48 .3 17 .3 22 .3 Q 12 M ic ro A na ly sis o f F ar m F irm s, Fa rm H ou se ho ld s, an d Fa rm In pu t M ar ke ts 32 .9 16 .5 17 .7 15 .3 26 .5 16 .9 28 .6 21 .3 Q 16 A gr ic ul tu ra l R & D ; A gr ic ul tu ra l T ec hn ol og y; B io fu el s; A gr ic ul tu ra l E xt en sio n Se rv ic es 26 .6 14 .0 11 .8 19 .5 15 .4 22 .8 14 .3 18 .0 Q 11 A gr ic ul tu re : A gg re ga te S up pl y an d D em an d A na ly sis ; P ric es 19 .5 15 .6 9. 9 14 .0 14 .7 18 .7 13 .0 15 .8 Q 13 A gr ic ul tu ra l M ar ke ts a nd M ar ke tin g; C oo pe ra tiv es ; A gr ib us in es s 11 .2 13 .3 7. 5 22 .2 16 .8 16 .9 10 .8 13 .8 Q 17 A gr ic ul tu re in In te rn at io na l T ra de 10 .2 7. 8 8. 7 16 .4 15 .1 10 .1 12 .2 10 .4 Q 15 La nd O w ne rs hi p an d Te nu re ; L an d Re fo rm ; L an d U se ; I rr ig at io n; A gr ic ul tu re a nd En vi ro nm en t 13 .1 7. 1 18 .9 11 .1 7. 5 5. 7 12 .2 9. 9 D 12 C on su m er E co no m ic s: Em pi ric al A na ly sis 6. 1 7. 7 5. 3 8. 7 13 .6 11 .5 8. 6 8. 4 L6 6 Fo od ; B ev er ag es ; C os m et ic s; To ba cc o; W in e an d Sp iri ts 5. 8 5. 0 2. 8 12 .9 12 .9 12 .6 8. 1 7. 7 O 15 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: H um an R es ou rc es ; H um an D ev el op m en t; In co m e D ist rib ut io n; M ig ra tio n 7. 9 3. 8 1. 9 0. 5 1. 1 18 .7 2. 2 5. 8 F1 3 Tr ad e Po lic y; In te rn at io na l T ra de O rg an iz at io ns 3. 1 4. 1 4. 7 9. 5 9. 0 5. 9 8. 1 5. 5 Q 25 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: W at er 4. 7 3. 2 16 .8 7. 9 2. 5 1. 4 2. 2 4. 6 O 18 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: U rb an , R ur al , R eg io na l, an d Tr an sp or ta tio n A na ly sis ; H ou sin g; In fr as tr uc tu re 10 .6 1. 7 1. 9 1. 1 0. 0 9. 5 3. 0 4. 3 D 18 C on su m er P ro te ct io n 1. 5 3. 0 0. 6 4. 0 5. 4 12 .2 3. 2 4. 1 P3 2 C ol le ct iv es ; C om m un es ; A gr ic ul tu re 6. 8 2. 0 3. 1 2. 6 3. 6 7. 0 2. 7 3. 9 D 24 Pr od uc tio n; C os t; C ap ita l, To ta l F ac to r, an d M ul tif ac to r P ro du ct iv ity ; C ap ac ity 6. 8 3. 0 5. 6 2. 1 5. 0 0. 7 4. 9 3. 8 I1 2 H ea lth P ro du ct io n 2. 3 3. 0 0. 0 1. 1 2. 5 13 .8 0. 8 3. 7 Q 28 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: G ov er nm en t P ol ic y 3. 2 3. 5 12 .1 2. 9 3. 9 0. 4 3. 5 3. 7 Q 58 En vi ro nm en ta l E co no m ic s: G ov er nm en t P ol ic y 1. 3 3. 4 10 .9 6. 1 3. 6 0. 5 4. 9 3. 6 Q 14 A gr ic ul tu ra l F in an ce 3. 8 5. 4 1. 6 5. 3 2. 5 0. 5 2. 7 3. 6 O 19 In te rn at io na l L in ka ge s t o D ev el op m en t; Ro le o f I nt er na tio na l O rg an iz at io ns 4. 4 2. 3 0. 6 2. 1 3. 6 7. 0 3. 0 3. 3 Q 22 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: F ish er y; A qu ac ul tu re 1. 2 4. 2 5. 6 1. 6 3. 9 2. 7 3. 8 3. 3 Q 24 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: L an d 4. 1 3. 2 4. 3 2. 6 2. 2 0. 9 3. 8 3. 1 F1 4 C ou nt ry a nd In du st ry S tu di es o f T ra de 3. 1 2. 5 2. 2 4. 5 2. 9 2. 9 3. 0 2. 9 I3 2 M ea su re m en t a nd A na ly sis o f P ov er ty 4. 4 1. 9 1. 6 0. 0 1. 1 6. 8 0. 5 2. 6 So ur ce : E co nl it N ot e: t he a cr on ym s in e ac h co lu m n re pr es en t th e fo llo w in g jo ur na ls : A gr ic ul tu ra l E co no m ic s (A E) ; A m er ic an J ou rn al o f A gr ic ul tu ra l E co no m ic s (A JA E) ; Au st ra lia n Jo ur na l o f A gr ic ul tu ra l a nd R es ou rc e Ec on om ic s (A JA RE ); Ca na di an J ou rn al o f A gr ic ul tu ra l E co no m ic s (C JA E) ; E ur op ea n Re vi ew o f A gr ic ul tu ra l Ec on om ic s (E RA E) ; F oo d Po lic y (F P) ; J ou rn al o f A gr ic ul tu ra l E co no m ic s (J A E) . 20 P. Sckokai Ta bl e 4. J EL c od es o f a gr ic ul tu ra l e co no m ic s ar tic le s by y ea r, 20 00 -2 01 1 (s ha re s ov er th e re sp ec tiv e to ta l i n % ) 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 * To ta l Q 18 A gr ic ul tu ra l P ol ic y; F oo d Po lic y 18 .7 22 .9 22 .3 23 .0 21 .7 26 .2 26 .1 24 .0 22 .3 24 .9 23 .9 20 .8 23 .1 O 13 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: A gr ic ul tu re ; N at ur al R es ou rc es ; E ne rg y; E nv iro nm en t; O th er P rim ar y Pr od uc ts 23 .7 25 .8 21 .0 22 .7 21 .7 17 .6 21 .1 22 .8 24 .6 22 .0 21 .1 23 .8 22 .3 Q 12 M ic ro A na ly sis o f F ar m F irm s, Fa rm H ou se ho ld s, an d Fa rm In pu t M ar ke ts 10 .4 18 .5 19 .0 15 .7 22 .3 25 .2 24 .6 22 .8 18 .6 28 .8 25 .6 22 .9 21 .3 Q 16 A gr ic ul tu ra l R & D ; A gr ic ul tu ra l Te ch no lo gy ; B io fu el s; A gr ic ul tu ra l Ex te ns io n Se rv ic es 13 .4 16 .4 16 .4 22 .7 20 .1 16 .6 18 .2 23 .4 19 .2 16 .1 18 .0 15 .6 18 .0 Q 11 A gr ic ul tu re : A gg re ga te S up pl y an d D em an d A na ly sis ; P ric es 20 .8 14 .7 17 .0 12 .3 11 .0 15 .0 14 .1 14 .3 19 .8 13 .0 19 .9 17 .3 15 .8 Q 13 A gr ic ul tu ra l M ar ke ts a nd M ar ke tin g; C oo pe ra tiv es ; A gr ib us in es s 15 .4 13 .8 11 .5 10 .7 12 .6 10 .9 9. 7 14 .0 12 .9 21 .0 14 .9 18 .2 13 .8 Q 17 A gr ic ul tu re in In te rn at io na l T ra de 13 .6 14 .1 15 .1 8. 0 6. 8 8. 0 10 .3 10 .0 9. 7 9. 8 11 .2 6. 5 10 .4 Q 15 La nd O w ne rs hi p an d Te nu re ; L an d Re fo rm ; L an d U se ; I rr ig at io n; A gr ic ul tu re an d En vi ro nm en t 7. 1 7. 3 8. 5 7. 7 10 .7 9. 6 11 .7 10 .0 10 .6 10 .4 10 .7 15 .2 9. 9 D 12 C on su m er E co no m ic s: Em pi ric al A na ly sis 3. 6 6. 5 5. 2 8. 7 6. 1 8. 6 5. 6 5. 5 12 .6 10 .4 11 .5 18 .2 8. 4 L6 6 Fo od ; B ev er ag es ; C os m et ic s; To ba cc o; W in e an d Sp iri ts 3. 0 3. 8 3. 9 5. 7 4. 2 9. 9 11 .4 7. 9 8. 3 10 .4 11 .0 13 .0 7. 7 O 15 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: H um an Re so ur ce s; H um an D ev el op m en t; In co m e D ist rib ut io n; M ig ra tio n 7. 1 6. 7 4. 9 5. 0 6. 5 7. 3 7. 0 5. 5 6. 6 4. 7 2. 8 5. 6 5. 8 F1 3 Tr ad e Po lic y; In te rn at io na l T ra de O rg an iz at io ns 4. 7 4. 7 8. 9 6. 0 4. 2 5. 1 7. 3 3. 3 6. 0 5. 7 6. 5 2. 6 5. 5 Q 25 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: W at er 6. 8 4. 7 5. 6 4. 7 2. 6 2. 6 5. 3 3. 6 5. 4 3. 6 5. 6 5. 2 4. 6 O 18 Ec on om ic D ev el op m en t: U rb an , R ur al , Re gi on al , a nd T ra ns po rt at io n A na ly sis ; H ou sin g; In fr as tr uc tu re 2. 7 3. 8 1. 0 2. 0 5. 2 5. 4 7. 0 7. 3 5. 2 4. 7 3. 1 4. 3 4. 3 21Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 * To ta l D 18 C on su m er P ro te ct io n 2. 7 2. 1 2. 3 2. 0 5. 5 7. 7 4. 4 5. 2 6. 0 4. 1 3. 1 4. 8 4. 1 P3 2 C ol le ct iv es ; C om m un es ; A gr ic ul tu re 6. 2 3. 5 4. 6 2. 3 1. 6 5. 4 3. 2 4. 0 4. 0 5. 4 3. 1 2. 6 3. 9 D 24 Pr od uc tio n; C os t; C ap ita l, To ta l F ac to r, an d M ul tif ac to r P ro du ct iv ity ; C ap ac ity 2. 7 1. 8 3. 6 2. 7 2. 3 4. 2 5. 3 5. 8 2. 3 3. 6 6. 2 5. 6 3. 8 I1 2 H ea lth P ro du ct io n 1. 2 2. 3 1. 6 2. 7 1. 9 5. 1 2. 6 4. 6 6. 9 2. 6 5. 9 8. 7 3. 7 Q 28 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: G ov er nm en t P ol ic y 5. 0 5. 3 6. 2 4. 0 1. 0 3. 2 3. 5 4. 0 4. 3 3. 1 2. 5 1. 7 3. 7 Q 58 En vi ro nm en ta l E co no m ic s: G ov er nm en t Po lic y 0. 0 0. 0 0. 0 2. 3 7. 1 3. 5 4. 7 3. 3 6. 6 4. 4 6. 7 4. 8 3. 6 Q 14 A gr ic ul tu ra l F in an ce 5. 0 4. 4 4. 6 3. 7 3. 2 2. 2 1. 8 3. 3 4. 9 5. 4 2. 5 1. 3 3. 6 O 19 In te rn at io na l L in ka ge s t o D ev el op m en t; Ro le o f I nt er na tio na l O rg an iz at io ns 3. 3 5. 0 3. 9 2. 3 2. 6 2. 6 3. 2 3. 0 4. 0 3. 9 4. 5 0. 4 3. 3 Q 22 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: Fi sh er y; A qu ac ul tu re 4. 7 4. 1 3. 6 2. 3 2. 9 2. 2 3. 8 2. 4 3. 2 2. 3 4. 2 3. 0 3. 3 Q 24 Re ne w ab le R es ou rc es a nd C on se rv at io n: La nd 1. 2 3. 5 3. 6 2. 3 5. 8 3. 5 2. 9 3. 0 5. 7 2. 8 1. 4 0. 0 3. 1 F1 4 C ou nt ry a nd In du st ry S tu di es o f T ra de 3. 6 1. 2 2. 0 1. 0 2. 9 2. 9 3. 8 0. 9 3. 2 5. 4 5. 1 1. 3 2. 9 I3 2 M ea su re m en t a nd A na ly sis o f P ov er ty 5. 0 3. 2 0. 7 2. 3 1. 3 4. 2 2. 1 1. 5 3. 7 1. 6 3. 1 3. 0 2. 6 So ur ce : E co nl it *I nc om pl et e 22 P. Sckokai economic analyses at the farm level) can be considered the evolution of traditional agri- cultural economics, since researchers have always dedicated a special attention to the spe- cificities of agricultural production (price volatility, weather risk, biological cycles,…) and of the organisation of the farm business. Other relevant research areas for agricultural economists, interesting more than 10% of the articles, are: 1. agricultural technology, research and extension (Q16), in which the new topic of agri- cultural commodities cultivated for biofuel production plays a key role; 2. demand, supply and market price analysis (Q11), in which researchers address issues like demand and supply elasticities as well as commodity price volatility; 3. agriculture in international trade (Q17), where trade policies (tariffs, subsidies, sani- tary and phytosanitary measures,…) are studied, with a special focus on the role of agriculture in international trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) context; 4. agricultural and food markets and marketing (Q13), in which a special attention is given to the functioning of the food supply chain and the industrial organisation anal- ysis of the different actors of the chain (farmers, processors, retailers). However, one should not just look at the most relevant research areas in terms of shares of total articles, mainly for two reasons: first, this ranking may be biased by the wide definition of some JEL codes (see above); second, and more important, some ‘niche’ areas, interesting a lower share of articles, may reveal new topics and new trends that are gaining importance. If one considers all the JEL codes reported in Tables 3 and 4 (all those interesting at least 2.5% of the articles considered in this paper), one of the most interesting elements is the presence of research areas outside the area Q, which is by definition the area of agricultural economics. Among these research areas, the most important is by far the area O13 (contribution of agriculture to economic development), which has been discussed before. The second one by importance is D12 (consumer eco- nomics), since researchers are dedicating an increasing attention to the analysis of fac- tors influencing consumers’ choices for food products. The third one is L66 (food and beverage industry), which includes all industrial organization studies concerning the food industry; this JEL code is often linked with Q13, the code specific to supply chain studies in the area Q. This kind of linkages between codes in area Q and codes in other JEL research areas are relevant also for production studies (Q12 and D24, the specific code for efficiency and productivity studies), demand studies (Q13 and D12) and trade studies (Q17 and F13, the code related to international trade organizations). On the contrary, the link- ages between agriculture and other sectors of the economy tend to be classified in areas outside Q, like O15 (role of human resources, migration, and income distribution for economic development) and O18 (relationship between urban and rural areas, regional economics, transportation and infrastructures). Finally, studies very specific to the agri- cultural sector are those related to land use, that are classified under Q15, and to water use (Q25), the most important environmental JEL code that we find among agricultural economics articles. 23Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This 3.2 The JEL codes by journal In Table 3, the JEL codes of agricultural economics articles are disaggregated by jour- nal, and one can easily appreciate that there are strong differences among journals in terms of the relative weight of the most represented research areas. Starting from the AJAE, the most important journal in terms of number of pub- lished articles, one can note that, while the ranking of the different areas is in line with the totals, their shares tend to be significantly smaller. This is true for almost all JEL codes considered in Table 3, which means that the articles published in the AJAE tend to cover a wider spectrum of topics, although many of them have a low share and can be considered as ’niche’ research areas. Some relevant differences with respect to the whole sample con- cern the area O13 (agriculture and economic development), which is rather under-repre- sented, and the area Q14 (agricultural finance), to which the AJAE dedicates more space than all the other journals. The two European journals, the ERAE and the JAE, have a similar profile, with a strong emphasis on agricultural and food policy (Q18) and on the microeconomic analy- ses at the farm level (Q12). These two codes are often linked together, especially when the articles address issues related to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU), whose role is extremely relevant for the farm business in Europe. Other areas that are intensively covered in these two journals are trade policies and industrial organi- zation of the food industry, as well as consumer economics (mainly in the ERAE) and land use studies (mainly in the JAE). The two journals with a stronger international focus, AE and FP, also have a similar profile, with a strong emphasis on articles dealing with the relationship between agricul- ture and economic development (O13), the issues related to agricultural technology, R&D and biofuels (Q16), as well as on agricultural market and price analyses (Q11). FP is also strongly focused on agricultural and food policies, while AE hosts many studies concern- ing microeconomic analyses at the farm level. The two remaining journals, AJARE and CJAE tend to be rather focused on national problems; however, in terms of topics, the former frequently hosts articles dealing with environmental economics and policies, while the latter is especially targeted to trade and supply chain issues. Now the question is: are these differences the results of specific editorial policies? It is of course difficult to answer this question. In general, all the seven journals analysed here have recently revised their «aims and scope», typically enlarging the list of their topics of interest. Thus, all these journals are diversifying their content, although the actual com- position is clearly related to the outcome of the peer review process and its impact on the potential submissions, since authors tend to submit in journals where they have already found some related articles. 3.3 The JEL codes over time Given the objectives of this analysis, the evolution of the JEL codes of agricultural economics articles is clearly a key issue, since it allows us to identify positive or negative trends in terms of research topics. Focusing first on the main research areas discussed in 24 P. Sckokai section 3.1, at the beginning of the period the topics related to agriculture and economic development were by far the most relevant in agricultural economics journals. Over time, we observe a strong increase in the share of agricultural and food policy articles, which peaked in 2005-06, and slightly declined in the last few years. This is likely to be linked with the major agricultural policy reform processes that took place in the years 2002-2005 in several developed countries, which generated a relevant flow of articles analysing their impact. Since we expect another relevant wave of reforms in the near future, this is likely to happen again in the next few years. As discussed above, these articles are often devel- oped through microeconomic analyses carried out at the farm level. This is probably one of the reasons linked to the trend of the corresponding JEL code (Q12), which follows rather closely that of Q18: a strong increase till the years 2005-06 and a slight decline in the last few years. A similar trend characterises also the articles dealing with agricultural technology, R&D and with the issue of biofuels. This is not surprising, since the debates on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and on the use of agricultural raw materials for producing renewable energy has been especially hot in the middle of the decade, and, as for the policy issues, are likely to come back again in the near future. Some other important JEL codes show the opposite pattern: a decline in the middle of the period and a recovery in the last few years. This is the case, for example, of research are- as like market and price analysis and industrial organisation of the food sector. The recent interest in these areas is clearly linked to the dramatic increase in commodity price volatility and to the consequences of the economic crisis. In this context, issues like the transparency of food pricing, the market power of food processors and retailers and the distribution of the value added along the supply chain are becoming increasingly important. The research area that shows the sharpest increase over time is the empirical analysis of consumer preferences (JEL code D12). This is due to the development of research tools in experimental economics and choice modelling dealing with consumer preferences for food, as well as to the increasing importance of issues related to the linkage between food and health, like obesity or functional foods. In this area, agricultural economists are play- ing a leading role in terms of addressing these hot empirical issues. Finally, the share of the articles linked to environmental economics and policy tends to fluctuate over time, with a clear increasing trend only for the research area related to land use, irrigation and the relationship between agriculture and the environment (Q15). 3.4 The contribution of Italian studies Table 5 presents the JEL codes of the agricultural economics articles with at least one author working in Italian institutions. Given the rather low number of articles, we have grouped the articles in two sub-periods. As compared to Table 4, two of the most relevant research areas are the same as in the general sample: agricultural and food policies (Q18) and microeconomic analyses at the farm level (Q12). Once again, these two JEL codes are often linked to the same article, and their sharp increase over time clearly shows an increasing interest by Italian studies in this wide research area. The rather high share of articles dealing with trade problems and policies (Q17 and F13) is a rather peculiar feature of Italian studies. This is likely to be linked with the pres- ence of a group of very active Italian researchers, with a strong reputation in this field, 25Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This that have proposed some significant contributions to the literature. The same happens for consumer economics studies, whose share is well above the average of the general sample, since again a group of Italian researchers is very active in this area. Italian studies are well represented also in the areas related to the industrial organisation and supply chain analy- ses of the food sector (Q13 and L66), while their contribution is rather marginal, as com- pared to the general sample, in areas like price analysis (Q11) and agriculture and econom- ic development (O13). Finally, one the most striking evidences concerning Italian studies is their virtual absence from all areas concerning environmental economics and policies. Of course, this conclusion is subject to all qualifications mentioned in section 2, since, for example, agricultural economists interested in environmental issues tend to publish in spe- cialised journals, mainly for two reasons: a) there are several specialised journals related to environmental and natural resource economics; b) some agricultural economists are leaders in topics related to the relationships between agriculture, food and the environment. 4. Concluding remarks This paper has analysed the JEL codes of the articles published in the period 2000-11 in seven major agricultural economics journals, in order to define which disciplines and which research areas are the «core business» of today’s agricultural and applied economists. A spe- Table 5. JEL codes of Italian agricultural economics articles (shares over the respective total in %) 2000-05 2006-11 Total Q18 Agricultural Policy; Food Policy 16.0 34.7 28.4 Q17 Agriculture in International Trade 28.0 24.5 25.7 Q12 Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets 16.0 24.5 21.6 F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations 20.0 20.4 20.3 D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis 20.0 18.4 18.9 Q13 Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness 16.0 18.4 17.6 Q16 Agricultural R&D; Agricultural Technology; Biofuels; Agricultural Extension Services 20.0 14.3 16.2 O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products 0.0 24.5 16.2 L66 Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco; Wine and Spirits 12.0 14.3 13.5 P32 Collectives; Communes; Agriculture 0.0 10.2 6.8 D18 Consumer Protection 12.0 4.1 6.8 Q11 Agriculture: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices 4.0 8.2 6.8 D24 Production; Cost; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity 8.0 4.1 5.4 O19 International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations 0.0 6.1 4.1 J43 Agricultural Labor Markets 8.0 2.0 4.1 Source: Econlit 26 P. Sckokai cial attention has been given to the sub-sample of the Italian studies, since a new scientific society in this area (AIEAA) has been recently founded by a group of Italian economists. The results concerning the general sample confirm the wide spectrum of interests of agricultural and applied economists, that includes some rather diversified research areas: from agricultural and food policies to the microeconomics of farmers’ behaviour, from development issue to commodity market and price analysis, from the industrial organi- sation of the food sector to agricultural technology, innovation and research, from agri- environmental economics and policy to consumer behaviour, from trade problems to water and land use issues. In general, this wide spectrum of interests is in line with the definition of applied economics recently proposed by Mittelhammer (2009) as the mission of the AAEA, the recently renamed US society of agricultural and applied economists. Of course, this ’enlarged scope’ of research in agricultural and applied economics also implies a new working style of researchers, in which the collaboration and integration with several related disciplines, the adoption of new research methodologies and a close dialogue with the policy makers become increasingly important. Now the question becomes: is this retrospective analysis sufficient to define future research trends in agricultural and applied economics? Answering this question is very difficult, for a number of reasons. The most important one is that, given the timing of the peer review process, there is already a significant lag between paper submission and pub- lication, ranging, on average, between 1 and 2 years. This means that the research output we observe in scientific journals is likely to be linked to ideas and projects developed sev- eral years before, while any article related to today’s hot topics in terms of social demand and/or policy relevance is likely to be published within the next 2-3 years. Thus, for exam- ple, it is very likely that articles covering issues like agricultural policy reform in the EU or commodity price volatility will increase in the near future. Nonetheless, other areas in which we should expect an increasing attention are those related to methodological improvements. For example, based on the JEL codes analysed in this paper, areas in which research is likely to be very active are, among others, farmers’ behavioural modelling, ver- tical relationships in the food supply chain, price transmission mechanisms, econometric analysis of farm level data, policy evaluation modelling, experimental economics and con- sumers’ choice modelling. This list, although not exhaustive, may be considered a starting point for the future research agenda in agricultural and applied economics. The above general approach to the agricultural and applied economics profession as well as the most promising research trends are well developed also in the mission state- ment of the AIEAA, whose scopes seem in line with the trend of the other major scientific societies in the field. This should become a strong incentive for Italian agricultural and applied economists wishing to play a role in the international arena. In fact, the analysis concerning Italian studies has shown that, while in terms of topics they are fairly in line with the general international trend in published research, their quantitative contribution remains rather small (only 2.5% of the published articles in the last 6 years), despite an encouraging increasing trend. This is clearly an important problem for the Italian agricul- tural and applied economics profession, which should dedicate some of its research and training efforts to develop the capacity of publishing a higher number of articles in inter- national peer reviewed journals, especially through its younger members. This seems to be one of the most important missions of the newly founded AIEAA. 27Agricultural and Applied Economics: What is This Finally, one should bear in mind that this analysis carries some important limitations, discussed in section 2. The most important one is certainly the fact that agricultural and applied economists, given their diversified research interest, publish also in journals that are not included in the ISI category «Agricultural economics and policy», whose domain is also rather ambiguous (for example, in the well-known database «Scopus», no category of this type exists). This makes our analysis incomplete by definition, and further research efforts aiming to include a broader spectrum of journals would certainly be valuable. References American Economic Association (2012). Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Classifica- tion System, , accessed 6 February 2012. Brandt, J.A. (2003). AAEA: Adapting to Meet Member Needs. American Journal of Agri- cultural Economics 85: 1095-1104. Buccola, S. (2006). The Organization of Economics. American Journal of Agricultural Eco- nomics 88: 1123-1134. Doering, O.C. (2007). The Political Economy of Public Goods: Why Economists Should Care. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 89: 1125-1133. Kinsey, J.D. (2001). The New Food Economy: Consumers, Farms, Pharms, and Science. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 83: 1113-1130. Léon, Y. (2005). Rural Development in Europe: a Research Frontier for Agricultural Econ- omists. European Review of Agricultural Economics 32: 301-317 Mittelhammer, R. (2009). 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