Joseph Cooper
ERS Publications by this Author
Amber Waves Articles by this Author
Journal Publications by this Author
Branch Chief
202-694-5482
Email:
jcooper@ers.usda.gov
Briefly:Joseph Cooper is Chief of the Agricultural Policy and Models
Branch in ERS's Market and Trade Economics Division. His research
focuses largely on farm policy issues.
Background:From July 2005 to July 2006, Joe served as the Senior Economist
in charge of agriculture and natural resources issues on the White
House's Council of Economic Advisors. This followed a stint as a
Deputy Director in the Resource and Rural Economics Division (RRED)
at ERS. Before that, Joe was an economist in the RRED Resource and
Environmental Policy Branch, where his research covered such topics
as the economics of agri-environmental programs, non-market
valuation, and the economics of the conservation of agricultural
genetic resources. Joe has also worked as an economist for the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Education:Joe received a Ph.D and M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the
University of California, Davis. He received a B.S. from the
University of California, Berkeley.
Professional Affiliations:Joe is a member of the Agricultural and Applied Economics
Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource
Economists. He currently serves on the Editorial Council of
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.
Selected Publications:Selected Recent Articles in Journals
Joseph Cooper and Daniel Hellerstein. "Do Government Economists
Value Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Conferences?,"
Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 31/4 (December
2009): pp. 914-930.
Joseph Cooper. "The Empirical Distribution of the Costs of
Revenue-Based Commodity Support Programs Estimates and Policy
Implications," Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 31/2
(Summer 2009): pp. 206-221.
Joseph Cooper. "Distribution of Payments under the Average Crop
Revenue Program: Implications for Government Costs and Producer
Preferences," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review,
Vol. 38/1 (April 2009): pp. 49-64.
Joseph Cooper, Federico Perali, and Marcella Veronesi.
"Incentivi Economici per la Protezione della Biodiversità e degli
Ecosistemi di Proprietà Privata," Economia delle Fonti di
Energia e dell'Ambiente, Vol. 51/1 (2008): pp. 107-126.
Joseph Cooper and Giovanni Signorello. "Farmer Premiums for the
Voluntary Adoption of Conservation Plans," Journal of
Environmental Planning and Management, Vol. 51, No. 1 (January
2008): pp. 1-14.
Robert Johansson, Joseph Cooper, and Mark Peters. "An
Agri-environmental Assessment of Trade Liberalization,"
Ecological Economics, Vol. 58 (2006): pp. 37-48.
Robert Johansson, Lisa Mancino, and Joseph Cooper. "The Big
Picture: Obesity, Consumption, and Food Production,"
Agribusiness: An International Journal, Vol. 22/4 (Autumn
2006): pp. 491-503.
Joseph Cooper, Roger Claassen, and Jason Bernstein. "Overview of
Agri-Environmental Programs in the European Union and the United
States," Farm Policy Journal, Vol. 2/3 (August 2005): pp.
31-41.
Robert Johansson, Joseph Cooper, and Utpal Vasavada. "Greener
Acres or Greener Waters? Potential U.S. Impacts of Agricultural
Trade Liberalization," Agricultural and Resource Economics
Review, Vol. 34/1 (April 2005): pp. 1-12.
Cooper, Joseph. "Joint Framework for Analysis of
Agri-environmental Payment Programs," American Journal of
Agricultural Economics, (November 2003): pp. 976-987.
Joseph Cooper, Michael Hanemann, and Giovanni Signorello. "One
and One-Half Bound Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation,"
Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 84 (November
2002): pp. 742-750.
Kelly Giraud, Branka Turcin, John Loomis, and Joseph Cooper.
"Economic Benefit of the Protection Program for the Steller Sea
Lion," Marine Policy, Vol. 26 (2002): pp. 451-458.
Kelly Giraud, John Loomis, and Joseph Cooper. "A Comparison of
Willingness to Pay Estimation Techniques from Referendum Questions:
Application to Endangered Fish," Environmental and Resource
Economics, Vol. 20 (December 2001): pp. 331-346.
Daniel Mullarkey, Joseph Cooper, and David Skully.
"Multifunctionality of Agriculture: Do Mixed Goals Distort Trade,"
Choices, First Quarter 2001: pp. 31-34.
Joseph Cooper. "Flexible-form and Semi-nonparametric Estimation
of Willingness to Pay Using Dichotomous Choice Data," Journal
of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 2 (March
2002): pp. 267-279.
Joseph Cooper. "Construction of a Fund for the Sharing of
Benefits from the Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture," Environment and Development Economics,
Vol. 6 (February 2001): pp. 47-62.
Joseph Cooper. "Nonparametric and Semi-Parametric Travel Cost
Methods," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.
82 (May 2000): pp. 245-259.
Selected Recent Books
Joseph Cooper, Federico Perali, and Marcella Veronesi (eds.).
Integrated Assessment and Management of Public Resources,
March 2006, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, US. 256
pp.
Joseph Cooper. Global Agricultural Policy Reform and Trade
Environmental Gains and Losses, March 2005, Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, US. 224 pp.
Joseph Cooper, Leslie Lipper, and David Zilberman (eds.).
Agricultural Biodiversity and Biotechnology in Economic
Development, 2005, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Boston/Dordrecht/London, 499 pp.
Selected Recent Bulletins and Reports
Biomass Research and Development Board Feedstock Inter-Agency
Working Group.
Increasing Feedstock Production for Biofuels: Economic Drivers,
Environmental Implications, and the Role of Research,
(Joseph Cooper, lead author chapters 2 and 9), Biomass Research and
Development Board, Washington, DC, December 2008.
Joseph Cooper. "The U.S. Agricultural Sector," Chapter 8 in the
2006
Economic Report of the President, Council of Economic
Advisors, Executive Office of the President, 2006.
Ruben N. Lubowski, Shawn Bucholtz, Roger Claassen, Michael J.
Roberts, Joseph C. Cooper, Anna Gueorguieva, and Robert Johansson.
Environmental Effects of Agricultural Land-Use Change: The Role of
Economics and Policy, Economic Research Report No.
(ERR-25), Economic Research Service, USDA, 81 pp., August 2006.
Joseph Cooper, Robert Johansson, and Mark Peters. "Environmental
Issues," chapter 7 in
U.S. Agriculture and the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
M. Burfisher (ed.), Agricultural Economic Report 827, Economic
Research Service, USDA, March 2004.
Jason Bernstein, Joseph Cooper, and Roger Claassen. "Agriculture
and the Environment," in
EU-U.S. Comparison Report, M. Normile (ed.), Agriculture
and Trade Report, Economic Research Service, USDA, 2004.
Daniel Hellerstein, Cynthia Nickerson, Joseph Cooper, Peter
Feather, Dwight Gadsby, Daniel Mullarkey, Abebayu Tegene, and
Charles Barnard.
Farmland Protection: The Role of Public Preferences for Rural
Amenities, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Agricultural Economic Report No. 815, 2002.
Wesley Nimon, Joseph Cooper, and Mark Smith. "NAFTA,
Agricultural Trade, and the Environment," chapter in
Effects of North American Free Trade Agreement on Agriculture and
the Rural Economy, Steven Zahniser and John Link (eds.),
ERS Agriculture and Trade Report No. WRS0201, pp. 43-50, July
2002.
Anna Alberini and Joseph Cooper.
Applications of the Contingent Valuation Method in Developing
Countries: A Survey, Economic and Social Development Paper
No. 146, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Rome. Italy, 63 pp., 2000.