Just, David R.

Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies
Agricultural firms vary widely in size, capacity and resources. Despite heterogeneous ability among users, information dispersed through USDA and other public outlets are primarily directed to highly trained individuals. This could potentially create differences in market information available to larger and smaller firms. The primary goal of my research program is to explore the impact of information resources on agricultural producers and consumers. Using tools from the emerging literature on behavioral psychology and economics, I hope to learn how smaller firms may be placed at an unfair disadvantage and, further, how extension and other resources may substitute for more rigorous understanding of market forces. Further, I seek to understand how marketers are able to manipulate behavioral tendencies of consumers. By understanding how such behaviors impact decisions and transactions, I hope to provide relevant policy, strategic and consumer advice on how one may overcome damaging behavioral tendencies. Such advice could make substantial improvements in the lives of small business owners, farmers, and consumers of agricultural products.

research

research and scholarship focus

Professor Just`s research interests center around the use of information, and more particularly, how differences in human capital and information availability affect decisions.|Some research questions addressed by his research include: Why do individuals and firms use the information they do? Do firms with greater informational resources take advantage of smaller firms? How do problems with information updating affect risk-averting behavior? How can economists` interpretations be tainted by ignoring issues of information? These concerns are of particular importance in agriculture, where firms of widely differing sizes compete in a market replete with profit risk.|Other areas of interest include the introduction of food psychology in the design of food assistance programs, product perception, and the impact of family interactions on purchasing behavior.

research areas

submitted impact statement

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

service

current professional activities

• Board Member, Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association
• Tellers Committee, American Agricultural Economics Association
• Honor Societies: Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Key, Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, Omicron Delta Epsilon
• Department of Economics valedictorian, Brigham Young University, 1998

background

educational background

  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2001
  • M.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1999
  • B.A., Brigham Young University, 1998

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

Just, David R. and Richard E. Just. “Information Exchange and Distributional Implications of Price Discrimination with Internet Marketing in Agriculture.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 88 No. 4 (November 2006):   882–899.

Just, David R., Steven A. Wolf and David Zilberman. “Effect of Information Formats on Information Services: Analysis of Four Selected Agricultural Commodities in the USA.” Agricultural Economics. 35 (2006): 289–301.

Just, David R. “Behavioral Economics, Food Assistance, and Obesity.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Vol. 35, No. 2 (October 2006): 1–10.

Just, David R., and Hikaru Hanawa Peterson. “Diminishing Marginal Utility of Wealth and Calibration of Risk in Agriculture.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 85, No 5 (December 2003): 1234–1241.

Just, David R., Steven Wolf, and David Zilberman. “Principles of Risk Management Service Relations in Agriculture.” Agricultural Systems. Vol. 75, No. 2-3 (February–March 2003): 199–213.

Just, David R., Steven Wolf, Steven Wu, and David Zilberman. “Consumption of Economic Information in Agriculture.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 84, No. 1 (February 2002): 39–52.

Heiman, Amir, David R. Just, and David Zilberman. “The Effect of Religion, Education and Income on the Level of Acceptance of Biotechnology.” International Journal of Biotechnology. Vol. 3, No.3/4 (2001): 257–259.

Just, David R., and Richard E. Just. “Implications of the Internet for Agriculture.” Choices , (Second Quarter 2001): 36– 40.

Heiman, Amir, David R. Just, Bruce McWilliams, and David Zilberman. “Incorporating Family Interactions and Socio-Economic Variables into Family Production Functions: The Case of Demand for Meats.” Agribusiness, an International Journal. Vol. 17, No. 4 (Fall 2001): 455–468.

Wolf, Steven, David R. Just, and David Zilberman. “Between Data and Decisions: The Organization of Agricultural Economic Information Systems.” Research Policy. Vol. 30, No. 1 (January 2001): 121–141.

 

Heiman, Amir, David R. Just, and David Zilberman. “The Role of Socio-economic Factors and Lifestyle Variables in Attitude and the Demand for Genetically Modified Foods.” Journal of Agribusiness. Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 2000): 249–260.

Keywords: applied behavioral economics, behavioral economics, biofuels policy, health and nutrition, information economics, learning, risk, risk uncertainty, uncertainty