Agricultural firm resilience to disasters domestically and abroad: Applications in animal health

Abstract

Agricultural industries operate within a world of uncertainty, volatility, and risk. The degree to which an industry successfully responds to and recovers from exogenous events is dependent on industry resilience (Zolli and Healey, 2012). As a leader in world agricultural production, public and private initiatives are ongoing in the U.S. to maintain a resilient industry when faced with disruptive events both domestically and abroad. A resilient agricultural industry that can better cope with the uncertainty of production, markets, or trade consequently means a safe and abundant food supply domestically. This dissertation applies this idea of resiliency to the animal health spectrum. The first dissertation chapter examines the influence of media coverage during world events on the U.S. swine futures market. The second chapter in this dissertation expands a partial equilibrium framework to include the livestock sector allowing for a more rounded analysis of potential shocks (e.g. FMD outbreak, trade bans, etc.) occurring in the agricultural industry. Finally, the third chapter in this dissertation applies the model developed in Chapter 2 and explores the economic consequences of alternative marketing strategies amid a simulated foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.