Steven D. Hanson

Steven D. Hanson

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Professor and Dean, International Studies and Programs
Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Phone:
517-355-2352

Email:

Degrees:
Ph.D., Iowa State University
B.S., Iowa State University

Professsor Steven Hanson, is the Former Chair, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.  He was appointed in the tenure system and his research focused on risk management with financial contracts and the valuation of financial contracts and assets, such as land. His work has been published in the leading journals such as the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and the Journal of Empirical Finance.    He has taught graduate and undergraduate financial economics and management courses. 

Dr. Hanson joined AFRE in 1988 and served as Chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics for the period 2003-2014, providing leadership to one of the most productive and highly ranked departments in the country.   Beginning in 2009 Dr. Hanson also assumed the position of Assistant Dean in International Studies and Programs in an effort to move MSUtoward aligned and engaged scholarship with a goal to develop local, national, and global opportunities related to food, health, environment, and education.  In April, 2014, Dr. Hanson was named Associate Provost and Dean of International Studies and Programs (ISP) at MSU.

He has served as Chair of the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators and is a Fellow of the Food Systems Leadership Institute.  In May 2014 Dr. Hanson stepped down as AFRE Chairperson to become the Associate Provost and Dean of International Studies and Programs at MSU.

Research and Outreach Interests

  • Pricing commodity options when futures prices exhibit time-varying volatility
  • Capital gains and effective tax rates
  • Income probability distributions with commodity options
  • Price level risk management with commodity options
  • The approximating ability of the mean-variance model for truncated probability distributions
  • Analysis of land values and financing decisions
  • Production and hedging decisions of firms using commodity contracts
  • Testing for time-varying risk premium in returns to U.S. farmland
  • Optimal rollover hedging on futures markets
  • Pricing Farmer Mac securities using option valuation techniques
  • Impacts of lender-borrower relationships on loan approval
  • Agricultural finance issues
  • Agricultural marketing and price analysis issues

Teaching Experience

  • Graduate and undergraduate financial economics and management courses