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About David
David Abler is Department Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education and Professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics and Demography at Pennsylvania State University in the College of Agricultural Sciences. A leading figure in Business & Economics with a focus on agricultural applications, he earned his B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Macalester College in 1982, graduating magna cum laude with highest honors and induction into Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1987. Abler joined Penn State University as Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics and Demography in 1987, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993, and to Professor in 1999. He served as Associate Head of the department from 2017 to 2020, Interim Head from 2023 to 2024, and has been Department Head since 2024. Additionally, he has been the J. Lossing Buck Visiting Professor at Nanjing Agricultural University in China since 2007 and a Visiting Research Professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 1994.
Abler's research centers on the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture, global food and agricultural markets, natural resource economics, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, with country expertise spanning China, Costa Rica, France, India, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. His influential publications include "Systems approach to nitrogen modeling in the Chesapeake Bay: Advancing production chain analysis under future changes" (Journal of Environmental Quality, 2026), "Impacts of Future Scenarios on the Nitrogen Loss from Agricultural Supply Chains in the Chesapeake Bay" (Environmental Research Letters, 2024), "Dairy Pricing Policy, Production, and Water Quality: Application to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed" (Journal of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, 2023), "Crop Allocation and Increasing Returns to Fertilizer Use in China" (Land Economics, 2021), and "Agricultural Costs of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load" (Environmental Science & Technology, 2014). He has led major grants, such as the $8.975 million USDA project "Thriving Agricultural Systems in Urbanized Landscapes" (2019–2026) and co-led the $25 million CARAT initiative (2023–2028). Awards include Fellow of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review (2017), Best Article of the Year Awards from the same journal (2017 and 2005), and the Outstanding Research Award from Gamma Sigma Delta (2003). Abler has held editorial roles, including Editor of Agricultural and Resource Economics Review (2015–2018), and leadership positions such as President of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (2020–2021). He mentors graduate students, whose dissertations cover applied economics and environmental stewardship, and teaches courses like Financial Decision Making for Agribusiness.
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