Julie A. Caswell
Professor and
Department Chair
Recent Publications |
Recent Activities |
Curriculum Vitae
My work focuses on understanding the operation of domestic and international food systems, analyzing how well they work, and evaluating how government policy affects their operation and performance. My particular interest is in the economics of food quality, especially the quality attributes of safety and nutrition. How are markets for food safety and nutrition developing given increased consumer demand for safer, more nutritious products; manufacturers and retailers' efforts to meet this demand; and increased regulatory activity by national governments to assure food quality? I am also interested in the economics of certification, traceability, and labeling for quality attributes. Examples of my work include how to prioritize the importance of different foodborne risks, whether regulatory programs such as Hazard Analysis at Critical Control Points (HACCP) will enhance food safety at a reasonable cost, how benefit and risk information can be balanced and effectively communicated to consumers, and how international trade agreements influence food quality.
Recent Publications
Economics of Food Quality | Economics of Food Certification, Traceability, and Labeling | Impacts of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Regulations on International Trade in Food Products
Economics of Food Quality
Caswell, Julie A. and Helen H. Jensen. In Press. Introduction: Economic
Measures of Food Safety Interventions. Co-Editors of Special Issue of
Agribusiness: An International Journal 23 (2).
Henson, Spencer, Julie A. Caswell, John Cranfield, Aamir Fazil, Valerie Davidson, Sven Anders, and Claudia Schmidt. 2007. A Multi-Factorial Risk Prioritization Framework for Food-Borne Pathogens. Report to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Garcia, Marian, Andrew Fearne, Julie A. Caswell and Spencer Henson. In Press. Co-regulation as a Possible Model for Food Safety Governance: Opportunities for Public-Private Partnerships. Food Policy.
Caswell, Julie A. 2006. A Food Scare a Day: Why Aren’t We Better at Managing Dietary Risk? Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 12:9-17.
Prioritizing Opportunities to Reduce the Risk of Foodborne Illnesses: A Conceptual Framework. Final Framework Paper for the Food Safety Research Consortium Project on Prioritizing Opportunities to Reduce Foodborne Disease. December 2005. Discussion Paper Series Number 3. Jointly authored by Consortium members Helen Jensen, Julie A. Caswell, Michael Doyle, Jerry Gillespie, J. Glenn Morris, Michael Taylor, Michael Batz, Ewen Todd, James Dickson, Catherine Woteki, John Galland, Sandra Hoffman, and Alan Krupnick.
http://www.card.iastate.edu/food_safety/national_conference/FSRC_Conceptual_Framework_final.pdf
Fearne, Andrew, Marian Garycia, Julie A. Caswell, Spencer Henson, and Yunus Kharti. 2005. Exploring Alternative Approaches to Traditional Modes of Food Safety. Final Report, Imperial College, London. Prepared for the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency under Contract D03004.
Golan, Elise, Tanya Roberts, Elisabete Salay, Julie Caswell, Michael Ollinger, and Danna Moore. 2004. Food Safety Innovation in the United States: Evidence from the Meat Industry. Agricultural Economic Report No. 831. Washington, DC: Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer831/
Maldonado, E.S., S. J. Henson, J.A. Caswell, L.A. Leos, P.A. Martinez, G. Aranda, and J.A. Cadena. 2004. Cost-Benefit Analysis of HACCP Implementation in the Mexican Meat Industry. Food Control 16(4):375-381.
Buchweitz, Marcia R. D., Elisabete Salay, Julie A. Caswell, and Miguel J. Bacic. 2003. Implementation and Costs of Good Manufacturing Practices Norms and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points Systems in Foodservices in the Campinas Region, SP, Brazil. Foodservice Research International 14(2):97-114.
Economics of Food Certification, Traceability, and Labeling
Seafood Choices: Balancing Benefits and Risks . 2007. Report of 13-member Institute of Medicine Committee. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11762.html
Grolleau, Gilles and Julie A. Caswell. 2007. Interaction Between Food Attributes in Markets: The Case of Environmental Labeling.
Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 31 (3): 471-484.
Caswell, Julie A. 2006. Quality Assurance, Information Tracking, and Consumer Labeling. Marine Pollution Bulletin 53 (10-12): 650-656.
Souza-Monteiro, Diogo and Julie A. Caswell. Traceability Adoption at the Farm Level: Analysis of the Portuguese Pear Industry. Selected paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association, Long Beach, California, July 2006.
Fouayzi, Hassan, Julie A. Caswell, and Neal H. Hooker. 2006. Motivations of Fresh-Cut Produce Firms to Implement Quality Management Systems. Review of Agricultural Economics 28(1):132-146.
Souza-Monteiro, Diogo M. and Julie A. Caswell. 2004. The Economics of Implementing Traceability in Beef Supply Chains: Trends in Major Producing and Trading Countries. Working Paper 2004-06, Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
http://courses.umass.edu/resec/workingpapers/
Caswell, Julie A., Yumei Ning, Fang Liu, and Eliza M. Mojduszka. 2003. The Impact of New Labeling Regulations on the Use of Voluntary Nutrient Content and Health Claims by Food Processors. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 22(2):147-158.
Teisl, Mario F. and Julie A. Caswell. 2003. Information Policy and Genetically Modified Food: Weighing the Benefits and Costs. Working Paper 2003-01, Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Impacts of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Regulations on International Trade in Food Products
Caswell, Julie A. and Christian Friis Bach. In Press. Ethics, Globalization, and Hunger: Food Safety Standards in Rich and Poor Countries. In Ethics, Globalization, and Hunger: In Search of Appropriate Policies , ed. Per Pinstrup-Anderson. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Anders, Sven and Julie A. Caswell. Assessing the Impact of Stricter Food Safety Standards on Trade: HACCP in U.S. Seafood Trade with the Developing World. Selected paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association, Long Beach, California, July 2006.
Sparling, David and Julie A. Caswell. 2006. Risking Market Integration Without Regulatory Integration: The Case of NAFTA and BSE. Review of Agricultural Economics 28(2):212-228.
Sparling, David and Julie A. Caswell. 2006. A NAFTA Approach to Animal Health and Biosecurity: Pipe Dream or Possibility? In Agrifood Regulatory and Policy Integration Under Stress. Proceedings of the Second Annual North American Agrifood Market Integration Workshop, ed. Karen M. Huff, Karl D. Meilke, Ronald D. Knutson, Rene F. Ochoa, and James Rude, pp. 109-133. College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University.
http://naamic.tamu.edu/sanantonio/agrifood_regulatory_and_policy_integration_under_stress.pdf
Caswell, Julie A. and Siny Joseph. Consumers’ Food Safety, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Concerns: Major Determinants for Agricultural and Food Trade in the Future? Invited paper presented at the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC) Summer Symposium on “Food Regulation and Trade: Institutional Framework, Concepts of Analysis and Empirical Evidence.” Bonn, Germany, May 2006.
Available at http://www.agp.uni-bonn.de/iatrc/iatrc_program/program_e.htm.
Caswell, Julie A. Globalization and Agriculture: The Impact of Food Quality and Safety Concerns. 2nd Annual Kenneth R. Farrell Distinguished Public Policy Lecture presented at the Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, Canada, December 2005.
Caswell, Julie A. 2003. Trends in Food Safety Standards and Regulation: Implications for Developing Countries. In collection of Policy Briefs: Food Safety in Food Security and Food Trade. Laurian Unnevehr, editor. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Recent Activities
I am currently serving as Chair of the Department of Resource Economics. My teaching activities focus on the use of economic analysis to understand the food system and industries. In our undergraduate program, my Hunger in a Global Economy class explores the likely future balance worldwide between a fast growing population and possibly slower growing food supply. In our graduate program, I team-teach courses focusing on the use of industrial organization economics to analyze the operation of the food system. I have taught graduate courses in the economics of food safety and competition policy in Italy, Poland, Brazil, and Spain.
In my outreach activities, I work with federal agencies, international organizations, and groups of researchers to produce economic analysis of the benefits and costs of government regulatory programs and private quality control programs for food products. This work includes consultations with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. General Accounting Office, Congressional Research Service, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I am a senior researcher in the Food Marketing Policy Center, University of Connecticut and by subcontract at the University of Massachusetts. I am a founding member of the Food Safety Research Consortium, formed by seven leading institutions to develop improved risk analysis and analytical tools for food safety decision making, priority setting, and resource allocation. I have recently participated in research on the economics of food safety conducted for the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
