Research Interests:
My current research interests are in price
analysis, price risk measurement, labour productivity convergence and
agricultural policy evaluation.
Modelling of agricultural sectors for the purposes of
policy analysis.
NI FAPRI Project
(in collaboration with Dr
Joan Moss and Dr
Ziping WU)
The focus of this area of research is the development
of sectoral level models for agriculture in Northern Ireland. Individual
models, consisting of a set of econometrically estimated equations based
on time series data, have been developed for the dairy, beef and sheep
sectors. Agricultural Inputs models have also been developed. The models
are linked together and with EU models (themselves linked to the FAPRI
Global Modelling system) developed by FAPRI at the University of
Missouri (http://www.fapri.missouri.edu/)
to form a system, which is simulated to produce ten-year projections of
the key commodity variables and their prices as well as overall sector
incomes. The modelling system can be simulated to produce ten-year
projections under different policy (and macro) scenarios for the
purposes of policy evaluation. This work has benefited from co-operation
with colleagues in Teagasc, Dublin (http://www.tnet.teagasc.ie/fapri/),
who are engaged in a similar project.
Lecturing topics
Level Three
Natural Resource Economics
- Market Efficiency and Market Failure
- Public goods
- Environmental externalities
- Common Property Rights
- CBA and shadow pricing
Farm Business Management
Agricultural and Food Marketing II
- Futures Markets and Hedging
- Quantitative analysis of the diffusion of
innovations/new products
- Demand Function Estimation
- Quantitative analysis of Brand Loyalty
Level Two
Agricultural and Food Marketing I
- Model Building in Marketing
- Maximising exposure in advertising using linear
programming
- Market segmentation using cluster analysis
- Measuring the effectiveness of advertising
Food Business Economics and Marketing Management
- Financial Accounting
- Management and Cost Accounting
- Management Principles
- Operations/Production Management
Level One
Specialist Skills and Development
- Enterprise and learning Skills
- Group Working skills
- Economic modelling
- Interview Skills
- Computer skills
Refereed Journal Articles
McErlean,
S.A. and Wu, Z. (2003). Regional Agricultural Labour Productivity
Convergence in China. Food Policy,
(In-press).
Patton,
M. and McErlean, S.A. (2003). Spatial effects within the agricultural
land market in Northern Ireland. Journal
of Agricultural Economics,
54(1): 35-54.
McErlean,
S.A., Wu, Z., Moss, J.E., Ijpelaar, J. and Doherty, A. (2003). Do EU
direct payments to beef producers belong in the 'blue box'. Australian
Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 47(1):
25-43.
Wu,
Z. and McErlean, S.A. (2003). Market Efficiency in the Reformed Chinese
Grain Marketing System. China
Economic Review, (In-press).
Moss,
J.E., McErlean, S.A., Wu, Z., Doherty, A. and Ijpelaar, J. (2001).
Exchange Rates, Export Dependence and Agricultural Incomes.
Farm Management, Vol. 11(2):87-97
Jack,
C., McErlean, S.A., Anderson, D. and McCallion, T. (2000). Price
Skewness and Choice of Marketing System for Finished Cattle. Agribusiness:
An International Journal, Vol. 16(4):471-484.
Jack,
C., McErlean, S.A. and Anderson, D. (1999). Farmers' Choice of Marketing
Channel for Finished Cattle. Farm
Management, 10(6):334-344.
McErlean,
S.A. (1999). The Price Schedule required to smooth seasonal milk supply.
British Food Journal, 101(10):23-33.
Bradley,
A., McErlean, S.A. and Kirke, A.W. (1995) 'Technology Transfer in the
Northern Ireland Food Processing Industry', British
Food Journal, 97:
32-36.
Fulton,
N., Davis, J. and McErlean, S.A. (1991) 'The Impact of Value-Adding in
the Northern Ireland Beef Processing Industry',
Irish Journal of
Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, 14:
75-81.
Davis,
J., Fulton, N. and McErlean, S.A. (1990) 'Value-Adding Activity and
Employment in Beef and Sheep Meat Processing in Northern Ireland',
Journal of Agricultural
Economics, 41(3):
431-433.
Outside Interests
Growing fruit and vegetables in my allotment, reading,
walking, cinema, playing squash and indoor soccer.
