Professor Andrew Schmitz (B.S.A., M.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.)-Andrew Schmitz is the Ben Hill Griffin, Jr. Eminent Scholar and a Professor of Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville; Research Professor, University of California, Berkeley; and Adjunct Professor, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
Dr. Schmitz is one of the most imaginative and prolific scholars in the agricultural economics profession, specializing in international economics, public policy, and welfare economics. His ideas have led to many significant publications and have spawned numerous research efforts on many new frontiers. His work has dealt with such diversified subjects as the distributional impacts of technological change, boom-bust cycles, and the impacts of environmental regulations. Publications he has authored or co-authored have won six major research awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) alone. In 1999, he received an Earned Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Saskatchewan. His infectious enthusiasm for agricultural economics and economics research has also profoundly influenced and inspired both colleagues and students.
Born and raised on a farm west of Central Butte, SK, Andrew Schmitz received his B.S.A. and M.Sc. degrees in Agricultural Economics at the University of Saskatchewan. He also received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics in 1966 and 1968, respeclively, at the University of Wisconsin. His M.Sc. thesis won the best thesis award in agricultural economics from the Canadian Agricultural Economics Association; his doctoral dissertation won the University of Wisconsin's Harold Groves Doctoral Dissertation Award in Economics in 1968. He has won numerous awards, including an Earned Doctorate of Letters degree (University of Saskatchewan), and three Research of Enduring Quality awards from the AAEA.
In 1968, Andrew Schmitz was appointed an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as departmental chair from 1989 to 1994. He has held four different endowed Chairs: the Van Vliet Chair in Agricultural Trade, University of Saskatchewan; the George W. and Elsie Robinson Chair in Agricultural Economics, University of California, Berkeley; Chair, Center for the Study of Agricultural Law and the Environment (University of Saskatchewan); and currently the Ben Hill Griffin, Jr. Endowed Chair at the University of Florida. Since 1971, he has been actively involved in the ownership and operation of grain/cattle enterprises in Saskatchewan. His direct involvement in agriculture gives Andrew a keen interest and insight into many of the agricultural problems that have served as a basis for his research.
A crucial aspect of Dr. Schmitz's research is international marketing. He has written on the role of marketing boards, multinational grain companies, and state trading enterprises, including in-depth analyses of state trading enterprises in such countries as Bulgaria and Turkey. Andrew has been involved in many public policy debates in both Canada and the United States and has lectured worldwide on numerous economic issues. He has been a consultant to hundreds of private and public organizations, including many prestigious law firms, the Canadian and U.S. Departments of Justice, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the World Bank. He also heads the annual June conference in Moose Jaw, SK, "Farming for Profit?" At the Moose Jaw conference he provides a forum for policymakers, academics, and farmers alike to discuss issues facing farmers today. He has just completed two books, one on the economic performance and future of the Canadian Wheat Board and one on Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness and Rent Seeking Behavior, University of Toronto Press. The basis of these books is the use of welfare economics to understand policy formation and rent-seeking behavior.
Dr. Schmitz is married to the former Helen Carole Anderson, and they have five children, Troy, Katrina, Andre, Evan, and Dean. Troy is a professor at Arizona State University. The others are pursuing careers in medicine and engineering. Dr. Schmitz gives a special thank you to his wife, Carole, for all her work and patience over the years, which helped make this award possible.
Awards and Honors (Excluding Undergraduate)
* Master's Thesis Award for the best thesis in Agricultural Economics in Canada, 1964
* Harold Groves Doctoral Dissertation Award for the best thesis in the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, for the period 1967-1968; submitted in the Irving Fisher Award competition
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Best Published Research, 1970 (The World Sugar Economy)
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Outstanding Article in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1970 ("Mechanized Agriculture and Social Welfare: The Case of the Tomato Harvester")
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Best Published Research, 1978 ("Storage and Price Uncertainty in International Trade")
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Quality of Communication, 1979 ("International Trade Arrangements")
* Western Agricultural Economics Association Award for Best Published Research, 1980 ("Consumer's Surplus, Price Instability, and Consumer Welfare")
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Best Published Research, 1981 (Grain Export Cartels)
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Research of Enduring Quality, 1981 ("Mechanized Agriculture and Social Welfare: The Case of the Tomato Harvester")
* Special Recognition given to Andrew Schmitz as "An Outstanding Contributor," in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 2nd ed. Gail L. Cramer and Clarence W. Jones, eds. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1982
* The 1983 J. C. Snyder Memorial Lecture at Purdue University ("North America's Agricultural Trade and the Policy Debate")
* Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, August 1985
* George W. and Elsie M. Robinson Endowed Chair in Agricultural Economics, University of California, March 1986-June 1994
* The 1986 Anderson Scholar Lecture at Ohio State University ("Grain Cartels and Agricultural Trade")
* Outstanding Graduate Award, College of Agriculture's 75th Anniversary, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, July 1986
* Van Vliet Endowed Chair, University of Saskatchewan, 1986-1988
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Research of Enduring Quality, 1987 ("Concept of Economic Surplus")
* Fellows Address, American Agricultural Economics, 1989. ("GATT: The Role of Special Interest Groups")
* American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Research of Enduring Quality, Applied Welfare Economics and Public Policy, Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994
* Ben Hill Griffin Endowed Chair and Eminent Scholar, University of Florida, June 1994
* American Agricultural Economics Association Waugh Medal and Lecture, August 1995. ("Boom-Bust Cycles and Ricardian Rents")
* American Agricultural Economics Association, Babcock, B. and A. Schmitz, "Look for Hidden Costs: Why Direct Subsidy Can Cost Us Less Than a 'No Cost' Trade Barrier." The Best Of Choices 1986-1996, July 1996
* L. Tweeten Distinguished Lecture at Ohio State, 1996 ("Canada-U.S. Trade Disputes")
* The 1996 M.L. Wilson Distinguished Lecture at Montana State, April 4, 1996 ("Grain Marketing and Trade: Where Are They Headed?")
* 1996 Invited Lecture, "The Adaptation of New Technologies in Agriculture," 100th Anniversary, University of Vicosa, Brazil
* Earned Doctor of Letters degree, University of Saskatchewan, 1999
* Outstanding Publication Award, The Saskatchewan Book Writers Guild, January 2001. (Canadian Wheat Board: Marketing in the New Millennium)
* Member of National Research Council Food Safety Committee, National Academy of Sciences. July 2000-present
Copyright Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics Aug 2003