Courses - Fall 2026
AREC200
The Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem: Intersection of Science, Economics, and Policy
The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most studied and monitored ecosystems in the world. To develop effective policies to restore this system to a healthier status requires integrating what we know about the biological and physical properties of the system with our understanding of the human dimension. Issues such as achieving nutrient reduction goals, restoring healthy blue crab and oyster fisheries in the bay will be used to demonstrate how economics interacts with science to guide policies that can be effective in achieving Bay restoration goals.
AREC241
Credit only granted for: AREC240 or AREC241.
How can economics help us understand modern environmental problems and design better policies to solve them? This course studies the relationship between the economy, environment and policy. The importance of production, consumption, externalities, property rights and public goods in environmental issues is examined. Technological and incentive-based solutions are considered. Students will apply these concepts to evaluate current controversial environmental problems.
AREC250
Elements of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Credit only granted for: AREC240 or AREC250.
An introduction to economic principles of production, marketing, agricultural prices and incomes, farm labor, credit, agricultural policies, and government programs.
AREC254
Charting a Sustainable Future: Integrating Economics and Policy for Climate Action
Explores climate change through an economic perspective, focusing on how economic principles can inform effective climate policies. Students will learn about the causes and impacts of a changing climate, evaluate various policy approaches, and develop critical thinking skills. By the end of the semester, they will understand economic tools for addressing climate change and the associated political, socioeconomic, and ethical complexities.
AREC260
The Science of Gender in Economics and Development
Recommended: Completion of introductory statistics recommended but not required.
Is science an objective enterprise that qualifies researchers to investigate gender free from the constraints and prejudice of their culture? We will investigate the process by which various scientific disciplines, including anthropology, evolutionary biology, psychology, and economics do research on the topic of gender. We will describe the current state of the literature on why different sexes exist and how sex translates into gender across different societies today. With a better understanding of the sources of sex and gender, we will examine how to research the reasons behind the highly divergent economic outcomes for men and women today. We will discuss these issues in the context of the labor market in developed countries like the US as well as a variety of contexts in developing countri es. A particular focus will be the techniques for learning more about the underlying reasons for these differences, how and whether they can be overcome, and if women play a specific role in improving economic outcomes in the poorest parts of the world.
AREC280
Harvesting Big Data to Examine Agriculture and Climate Change
Credit only granted for: HNUH258A or AREC280.
Formerly: HNUH258A.
Can agricultural production keep up with climate change? The digital revolution has changed the way we analyze and interpret the world. Big data offers both opportunities and challenges that require new tools and methods of analysis. This course applies sophisticated digital tools to an age-old concern: the impact of climate on agricultural productivity. In this hands-on introduction to data analysis and visualization with real-world data, students acquire the tools to understand the impacts of environmental change and more.
AREC306
Farm Management and Sustainable Food Production
The organization and operation of farm businesses are explored through principles of management, financial analysis, production economics, marketing, and business planning. These farm management principles are presented in the context of a sustainable food production system.
AREC326
Intermediate Applied Microeconomics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Prerequisite: ECON200, AREC250, or AREC240; And MATH120, MATH136, or MATH140.
Credit only granted for: ECON306, ECON326, AREC489M, or AREC326.
Formerly: AREC489M.
Deepens and broadens your ability to apply rigorous economic analysis skills to a broad range of problems.
AREC345
This interdisciplinary course explores social and economic development around the world. Topics include geography, democratization, political instability and conflict, health and education, agricultural development, micro-entrepreneurship, and an introduction to impact evaluation methods used to evaluate the efficacy of public policy aimed at alleviating poverty.
AREC365
World Hunger, Population, and Food Supplies
An introduction to the problem of world hunger and possible solutions to it. World demand, supply, and distribution of food. Alternatives for leveling off world food demand, increasing the supply of food, and improving its distribution. Environmental limitations to increasing world food production.
AREC380
Data Science for Environmental and Resource Economics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Prerequisite: AREC240, AREC241, AREC250, or ECON200.
An introduction to principles of data science using modern, open source software tools with applications to important problems in environmental, energy and resource economics. Topics include data wrangling, exploratory data analysis and visualization, modeling, forecasting, practices for reproducible research, and communication of results.
AREC388
Internship Experience
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg
AREC389
Special Problems
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AREC389G
Special Problems
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AREC399
Undergraduate Research
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AREC427
Commodity Pricing and Markets
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: ECON326 or AREC326; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Economic theory as applied to the marketing of agricultural commodities. How commodity prices vary with current demand and production, and how prices are linked over time, across space, and across grades. The role played by contractual arrangements, cooperative marketing, vertical integration, and governmental policies in commodity marketing strategies.
AREC430
Introduction to Agricultural and Resource Law
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Prerequisite: ECON326 or AREC326.
Credit only granted for: AREC430 or AREC489K.
Formerly: AREC489K.
Survey of law with emphasis on problems and applications related to agricultural and natural resource economics. The course emphasizes strategies for managing legal risk arising from ownership, management, and use of agricultural resources. Students will get practical information to utilize in personal or professional settings. Contract law, constitutional law, tort law, property law, real estate transactions, business organization, estate planning, and debtor.
AREC447
The Economy of China
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AREC326 or ECON326 or Permission of AGNR-Agricultural Resource Economics department.
An introductory survey course of economic development in China with emphasis on understanding the process of economic reform in mainland China since 1978.
AREC453
Natural Resources and Public Policy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AREC326, ECON306, or ECON326; and (BMGT230 or ECON230).
Restriction: Must be in one of the following programs (Agricultural and Resource Economics; Agricultural and Resource Economics: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Resource Economics: Environmental and Resource Economics; Economics Bachelor of Arts; Environmental Science & Policy-Env Economics; Social Data Science-Economics; Economics minor).
Cross-listed with: ECON453.
Credit only granted for: AREC453 or ECON453.
Rational use and reuse of natural resources. Theory, methodology, and policies concerned with the allocation of natural resources among alternative uses. Optimum state of conservation, market failure, safe minimum standard, and cost-benefit analysis.
AREC455
Economics of Land Use
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (AREC326, ECON306, ECON326); and 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (ECON230, ECON321, BMGT230, STAT401).
Cross-listed with: ECON485.
Credit only granted for: AREC455 or ECON485.
Fundamentals of location theory. Microeconomics of land use decisions, including determination of rent and hedonic pricing models. Impacts of government decisions on land use, including regulation (e.g., zoning), incentives (transferable development rights), provision of public services, and infrastructure investments. Impacts of land use on environmental quality, including issues relating to sprawl, agricultural land preservation, and other topics of special interest.
AREC499
Honors Thesis Research
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AREC620
Optimization in Agricultural and Resource Economics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Additional information: Must have completed Multivariate calculus and matrix or linear algebra.
Mathematical theory of static and dynamic optimization as applied to the economics of agriculture, natural resources and the environment. Topics include necessary and sufficient conditions for constrained optimization, convexity and concavity, duality and the envelope theorem, comparative statics, fixed point theorems, optimal control theory and dynamic programming.
AREC623
Applied Econometrics I
Credits:
4
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Introductory statistics or econometrics, linear algebra, and differential/calculus; or permission of instructor.
Additional information: Intended for first-year Ph.D. students from AREC, BUFN, ECON, EDMS, EDUC, PLCY and URSP departments with a background in introductory statistics or econometrics.
A modern introduction to empirical strategies in applied microeconomic research in public policy, development economics, labor economics, education, marketing and corporate finance. Emphasis on causal reasoning and design-driven identification in the social sciences. Concepts and applications will focus on addressing economically meaningful causal questions. Basic theoretical and mathematical aspects of probability and statistics will be developed to assess the significance of the relationship among economic variables. Topics include: the approximation of the conditional expectation function through a linear predictor (Ordinary Least Squares), the effects of omitted variables and the usefulness of variables that resemble the outcome of a randomized experiment (Instrumental Variables), as well as extensions to high-dimensional big-data counterparts. Fundamental concepts in sampling theory, statistical inference (with small and large samples) and hypothesis testing will be studied and applied to real data using Stata, a general-purpose statistical software.
AREC699
Special Problems in Agricultural and Resource Economics
Credits:
1 - 2
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
AREC799
Master's Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
S-F
AREC829
Policy Design and Causal Inference for Social Science
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
AREC832
Agricultural Policy Analysis
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Credit only granted for: AREC632 or AREC832.
The economics of agricultural policies. The impact of agricultural policies on both historic and modern growth, including discussion of optimal farm and ownership structure. Contemporary policy issues in both developed and developing countries. Additional topics in trade, environment, and commodity markets.
AREC845
Environment and Development Economics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Considers neoclassical and endogenous growth models; international trade theory; the role of property right institutions and factor markets; the environmental impact of trade liberalization in developing countries and the environmental effects of increasing international capital mobility; empirical studies relating the environment to growth and globalization; and policy analyses.
AREC891
Introduction to Prospectus Development
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Completion of the first year of graduate study in AREC.
Credit only granted for: AREC 869K or AREC 891.
Formerly: AREC869K.
Critical evaluation of research, prospectus topic exploration including literature review, data identification, model development, and related presentations. Required of all second-year Ph.D. students.
AREC892
Dissertation Prospectus Development
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Completion of two years of the AREC Ph.D. program.
Credit only granted for: AREC 869P or AREC 892.
Formerly: AREC869P.
Presentations of proposed dissertation research including literature review, model development, data identification, and written prospectus development. Required of all third-year Ph.D. students.
AREC898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
S-F
AREC899
Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
6
Grad Meth:
S-F
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University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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