Department Overview

Loren W. Tauer Department Chair

Applied Economics and Management (AEM) is a large and diverse department in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Our 40 tenured faculty members and senior academic staff are internationally known scholars with training in the fields of applied economics and business. The AEM community also includes about 750 undergraduates, 65 graduate students, and 60 members of the professional and support staff.

Since its inception in 1909 as the Departments of Rural Economy, and Farm Crops and Farm Management, AEM has been concerned with the application of the theories and tools of economics and management to agricultural, food, and resource systems and to rural communities.

Today our programs include long-standing emphases in agricultural economics, environmental and resource economics, international development economics, international trade, and agribusiness management. However, we have also moved beyond our historical roots into areas more broadly focused on business, including finance, marketing, strategy, business law, accounting, and organizational theory.

We are admittedly proud of our highly regarded undergraduate, graduate, research, and extension programs.

The Undergraduate Business Program in Applied Economics and Management is among the largest majors on the Cornell campus and features specializations in both business and applied economics. The program is accredited by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, making us one of only two accredited undergraduate business degree programs in the Ivy League. Our graduates (about 220 per year) have a high placement rate and their starting salaries are considerably higher than the national average of business majors.

The graduate program in the field of Applied Economics and Management awards Ph.D., M.S., and M.P.S. degrees. The quality of our program and students has been recognized by an unsurpassed string of M.S. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association. Graduates accept important academic, government, or business positions.

The department faculty has an enviable record in applied research. One-third of the professorial faculty in AEM have refereed journal publication rates that place them in the top 5 percent of the broader economics profession and are frequent contributors to the highest-ranked journals in their academic fields. The faculty also have well-above-average citation rates, an enviable record of editorships, and they receive more than $2 million in research grants and contracts each year.

The department's extension and outreach programs are valued by their clientele and recognized nationally as diverse, innovative, and effective. Core areas relate to production, marketing, and public policy in the food system, as well as community development, rural land use, and resource and environmental issues in New York State and beyond.

On behalf of the outstanding people who make up the community known as the Department of Applied Economics and Management, we hope you enjoy our web site and become a regular visitor. Please feel free to contact us if we can provide you with any additional information.

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