Daniel A. Lass,
Professor
Recent Publications |
Recent Activities
My research and teaching interests can be broadly classified as micro-econometrics. My research focus has been on farm family decisions, from production to off-farm employment. Much of my previous research focused on the farm families labor decisions. Recent work has considered productive and allocative efficiency for dairy and cranberries in Massachusetts and for Bulgarian dairy production. Currently, I am also analyzing the impacts of the Northeast Dairy Compact on retail milk prices and the costs of production for fluid milk in the northeast. In addition, my tenure as graduate program director prompted an investigation into the value of graduate education in the field of resource economics.
I am currently in the third and final year of a Northeast SARE funded project on the economics of Community Supported Agriculture. The project includes both research and outreach. Research is being conducted at UMass by myself and Joe Moffitt. Research has focused on the economics of CSA in the northeast. Surveys were conducted for 1995, 1996 and 1997. Data were gathered on CSA costs and returns and have been analyzed to assess the viability of CSA in the northeast. We are also considering CSA labor use and pest management strategies and efficiency of CSA in detail. The outreach components of the project have been led by Cathy Roth, UMass Extension, and Steve Gilman of Ruckytucks Farm in Stillwater, New York. Steve has the coordinated publication of the CSA Farm Network (Volumes I and II), the third volume will be published this year.
I am also interested in water quality in New England streams and rivers, as well as other selected states, and the implications for specific forms of outdoor recreation. I am developing this research in my spare time focusing more specifically on aquatic entomology, salmonid populations, their interdependence and the effects on an individual's utility (namely, mine).
Recent Publications
Production Economics and Sustainable Agriculture | Farm Family Labor Decisions | Other Publications
Production Economics and Sustainable Agriculture
Lass, D. and N. Sanneh. "Costs and Returns for CSA Operations in the Northeast: Preliminary Results from the 1996 CSA Survey." Dept. of Resource Economics, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. November 1997.
Lass, Daniel and Conrado Gempesaw II. "Estimation of Firm-Varying, Input-Specific Efficiencies in Dairy Production." Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. October(1992):142-150.
Gempesaw II, Conrado, J. G. Elterich, V. A. Shivani and D. A. Lass. "Production Decisions Under Quota Restrictions: A Dynamic-Stochastic Financial Simulation Approach." 1992 Proceedings of the Northeast Decision Sciences Institute. April(1992):228-232.
Lass, Daniel and Conrado Gempesaw II. "The Optimality of Input Allocation by Massachusetts Dairy Farmers." Journal of Agribusiness. Vol. 9(1991):23-32.
Robert D. Weaver and Daniel A. Lass. "Corner Solutions in Duality Models: A Cross-Section Analysis of Dairy Production Decisions." American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 71(1989):1025-1040.
Farm Family Labor Decisions
Findeis, J. and D. Lass. "Labor Decisions by Agricultural Households: Interrelationships between Off-Farm Labor Supply and Hired Labor Demand." Working Paper #94-08. Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 1994.
Lass, Daniel and Conrado Gempesaw II. "The Supply of Off-Farm Labor: A Random Coefficients Approach." American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol. 74(1992):400-411.
Lass, Daniel A., Jill L. Findeis and M. C. Hallberg. "Off-Farm Employment Decisions by Massachusetts Farm Households." Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Vol. 18(1989):149-159.
Hallberg, M. C., J. L. Findeis and D. A. Lass. (Eds.) Multiple Job-Holding Among Farm Families. Ames: Iowa State Univ. Press. 1991. (350 pp.)
Lass, D., J. Findeis and M. Hallberg. "Factors Affecting the Supply of Off-Farm Labor: A Review of Empirical Evidence." In: Multiple Job-Holding Among Farm Families, pp. 239-262. Ames: Iowa State Univ. Press. 1991.
Findeis, J., D. Lass and M. Hallberg. "Effects of Location on Off-Farm Employment Decisions." In: Multiple Job-Holding Among Farm Families, pp. 263-276. Ames: Iowa State Univ. Press. 1991.
Other Publications
Cooley, Jack P. and D. Lass. "Consumer Benefits from Community Supported Agriculture Membership." Review of Agricultural Economics.
Lass, Daniel. "The Relevance of Graduate Programs in Agricultural and Resource Economics." Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Vol. 26(1997): 130-142.
Cooley, Jack and D. A. Lass. "What's Your Share Worth? Some Comparison of CSA Share Cost versus Retail Produce Value." In: 1997 CSA Farm Network. Northeast Organic Farming Association. 1997.
Gempesaw II, C. M., J. G. Elterich, V. Shivani, and D. Lass. "An Economic Impact Analysis of Alternative Dairy Policies: The Case of U.S. and German Dairy Farms." Applied Economics. Vol. 25(1993):961-969.
Recent Activities
My teaching coincides with my research interests. I teach the first course in microeconomic theory in our graduate program. The course includes theory of the firm, the consumer, and single market equilibrium. A few topics that include both theory of the firm and consumer are also included; household production models and risk and uncertainty are two examples. At the undergraduate level, I teach introductory statistics and introductory econometrics, both spring courses. In econometrics, the application of econometric methods for decision-making and policy analysis is emphasized with primary emphasis on microeconomic models of the firm and consumer.
I am active in the Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association serving on the Board of Directors and several other committees. I have provided research that has been used to determine agricultural land values in Massachusetts for taxation purposes and am currently a designee to the Farmland Valuation Advisory Commission.
