Project Mentor
Dr. Sandro Steinbach
Department: Agricultural and Resource Economics
Research Project Overview:
Project Title: The Impact of Port Congestion and Container Shortages on U.S. Agriculture
The project will investigate the impact of port congestion and container shortages on U.S. agricultural trade. The global share of containerized agricultural trade increased substantially during the last two decades, benefiting from lower capital costs and facilitating U.S. exports of perishable products, with particularly robust growth on the backhaul route from the U.S. to Asia. However, the coronavirus pandemic caused considerable disruptions to agricultural production, processing, and distribution, resulting in substantive ramifications for global trade. Although some countries and products experienced a sharp increase in export volumes and prices, the overall impact was detrimental to producers and consumers alike, with aggregated global trade flows contracting by 5 to 10 percent. As one of the major agricultural exporters, the United States ships a substantial share of its foreign sales through California ports, which handled about 31 percent of U.S. agricultural exports in value before the pandemic. California’s share is considerably larger for containerized (50 percent) than bulk agricultural exports (6 percent), implying that any disruptions to port operations would have significant implications for containerized agricultural exports from California ports. As part of the apprenticeship, you will work with Dr. Steinbach’s research group to investigate the trade effects of port congestion and container shortages for containerized exports from California ports and evaluate the impact of current policies and financial incentives to alleviate the port congestion.
Role of a SHARE Summer Apprentice:
The research apprentice will become familiar with applied economics research methods. The apprentice will learn how to address a research question in international economics systematically. The student will learn how to collect and structure data from different sources and prepare them to be useful for academic research. The selected apprentice will learn effective research management techniques and expand their data tabulation skills.
Summer Schedule/Time Commitment:
The time commitment is flexible and can be discussed with the PI.
Preferred Qualifications:
Basic knowledge of Excel and interest in environmental economics and sciences.
To Apply:
Applications are closed for this apprenticeship.
Click here to view an outline of the application questions. There are no additional questions specific to this apprenticeship application.