- Department of Agricultural Economics
Bio
Dr. Josh Maples is an Assistant Professor and Extension Economist with primary Extension and research specialties in livestock and meat market analysis. His professional interests span the entire livestock and meat supply chains. He works frequently with livestock producers and his research focuses on risk management for producers and consumer behavior for meat purchases and consumption. He also studies and delivers Extension programs on livestock policy topics. In the classroom, he has taught the senior-level Commodity Futures and Options Marketing course at MSU.
RELATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
On meat supply chains
J.G. Maples, J.L. Lusk, and D.S. Peel. “Technology and Evolving Supply Chains in the Beef and Pork Industries.” Food Policy, 83: 346-354. February 2019.
J.G. Maples, J.L. Lusk, and D.S. Peel. “Unintended Consequences of the Quest for Increased Efficiency in Beef Cattle: When Bigger Isn’t Better.” Food Policy, 74: 65-73. January 2018.
On livestock production
A. Harri, J.G. Maples, J.M. Riley, and J.B. Tack. “Firm Decision Making Under Output and Input Price Uncertainty.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Forthcoming.
B. Rushing, D. Rivera, and J.G. Maples. “Early-season Grazing of Native Grasses Offers Potential Profitable Benefit.” Agronomy Journal, Forthcoming.
B.W. Brorsen, J.R. Fain, and J.G. Maples. “Alternative Policy Responses to Increased Use of Formula Pricing.” Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization. 16:1. January 2018.
J.G. Maples, B. W. Brorsen, J.T. Biermacher. “The Annual Forage Pilot Program as a Risk Management Tool for Cool Season Grasses.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 48(01):29-51. February 2016.
J.G. Maples, K.T. Coatney, J.M. Riley, B.B. Karisch, J.A. Parish and R.C. Vann. “Comparing Carcass End-Point and Profit Maximization Decision Rules Using Dynamic Nonlinear Growth Functions.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 47(01):1-25. January 2015.
ONGOING RELATED RESEARCH
Dr. Maples’ ongoing research focuses on risk management, consumer behavior, and policy. His current Extension programs focus on risk management strategies for producers and market education. His ongoing consumer behavior research is examining how technological innovations have led to increased efficiency in animal protein production. In particular, beef and pork producers today are able to produce more meat using fewer animals than would have been required in the past and Dr. Maples’ research aims to estimate the impact of this increased efficiency on consumers and society using a set of survey and experimental instruments. For policy work, COVID-19 has exposed vulnerable bottlenecks in the livestock supply chain and many policy ideas are being proposed in response. Dr. Maples is working to analyze these proposals and their potential impacts on all levels of the supply chains.
