Degrees & Credentials:
PhD, Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, 2020
MSc, Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014
BS, Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012
BA, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012
Research Area(s):
Farm Labor
Farm Household Dynamics
Biography:
Margaret completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in 2020. Prior to studying at Cornell, she received her Masters of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also attended Illinois as an undergraduate, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural and Consumer Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in History. Her research focuses on agricultural issues both domestically and internationally, with a specific emphasis on farm labor and farm household dynamics. Broadly, her research explores how farms and other agricultural operations impact rural economies and environments, and how those, along with policy changes in those spaces, affect the nature of agricultural production. This interplay is of increasing importance from both a research and policy perspective given the current and persistent trends of rural decline, farmland concentration, and climate variability. In particular, she has ongoing projects related to the impact of changing labor market opportunities, immigration policy, demand for Federal crop insurance, on farm-level production and financial decisions. Another major strand of her work looks at the relationship between managing environmental risk, production risk, and financial risk; for example, she has a project that looks how various conservation practices, such as no-till or cover crops, increase farmers' resilience, in terms of indemnities received, in the face of weather shocks.