Matt Holt

Matt Holt
Professor of Economics and Dwight Harrigan Endowed Faculty Fellow in Natural Resource Economics
Economics, Finance & Legal Studies
Office: 248 Alston Hall, 205-348-8980
Specialty Areas:

Natural Resource Economics, Commodity Market Behavior, Applied Time-Series Econometrics.

Education:

Purdue University (B.S., M.S.) University of Missouri (Ph.D.).

Honors, Achievements and Affiliations:

 

Professor Holt’s recent research has focused on estimating, testing, and forecasting systems of theoretically consistent inverse demand equations, most notably in the context vessel-level demands for fish, and the development, application, and testing of non-linear time series models to commodity and natural resource markets.  Several applications of the later include a re-examination of the commodity terms of trade (i.e., the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis), the effects of mechanical refrigeration on perishable commodity prices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the role of structural change in inter-related demand equations for food items. Some of his current research efforts include an examination of the role of transactions costs in regional price relationships for oriented strand board and the effects of the El Niño-La Niña cycle on price relationships for edible fats and oils. Dr. Holt has published extensively in such journals as the Review of Economics and Statistics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Applied Econometrics, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (a journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association), Explorations in Economic History, Economics Letters, the Journal of Futures Markets, the Journal of Empirical Finance, Empirical Economics, and the Southern Economic Journal (a journal of the Southern Economic Association). 

 

Dr. Holt has been an active member of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), and has served an elected member of its Board of Directors (2005-2008). His research has also been recognized by the AAEA in the following categories: Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation (1988); Quality of Research Discovery (joint with S. Aradhyula, 1999), and Publication of Enduring Quality (joint with J.-P. Chavas, 2002). In 1993 he received the Outstanding Journal Article Award from the Western Agricultural Economics Association (joint with G. Moschini). In 2009 he was made a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.  This award is given annually to a select group of individuals for demonstrated superior performance in the agricultural and resource economics fields. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, and has held visiting appointments in the Department of Economic Statistics at the Stockholm School of Economics (2004, 2006).  He has been or currently is associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (1994-1997), the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics (1998-2004), and the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2009-present). His research has received funding from SEA Grant (NOAA), USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), and USDA’s Forest Service, among others. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Agricultural and Applied Economic Association, the Southern Economic Association, the International Institute of Forecasters, and the Cliometric Society.

Selected Publications

  • “North American Oriented Strand Board Markets, Arbitrage Activity, and Market Price Dynamics:  A Smooth Transition Approach.”  (With B.K. Goodwin and J.P. Prestemon.)  American Journal of Agricultural Economics.  Forthcoming.
  • "Bootstrapping Your Fish or Fishing for Bootstraps?: Precision of Welfare Loss Estimates from a Globally Concave Inverse Demand Model of Commercial Fish Landings in the U.S. Great Lakes." (With C.E. Hilmer and R.C. Bishop.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Forthcoming.
  • “Econometric Developments in Agricultural and Resource Economics: The First 100 Years.” (With D.A. Bessler, J.H. Dorfman, and J.T. LaFrance.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Special Issue Commemorating the Centennial of the AAEA, April 2010.
  • “The Role of Theoretical Restrictions in Price Forecasting with Inverse Demand Models.” (With H.A. Klaiber.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. January 2010.
  • “Estimating Structural Change with Smooth Transition Regressions: An Application to Meet Demand.” (With J.V. Balagtas.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. December 2009.
  • “The Commodity Terms of Trade, Unit Roots, and Nonlinear Alternatives: A Smooth Transition Approach.”  (With J.V. Balagtas.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. February 2009.
  • “Mechanical Refrigeration, Seasonality, and the Hog-Corn Cycle in the United States, 1870-1940.”  (With L.A. Craig.) Explorations in Economic History. 2008.
  • “Nonlinear Dynamics and Structural Change in U.S. Hog-Corn Cycle: A Time-Varying STAR Approach.”  (With L.A. Craig.) American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2006.
  • “Quasi-Rational and Ex Ante Price Expectations in Commodity Supply Models: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Broiler Market.” (With A.M. McKenzie.) Journal of Applied Econometrics.  2003.
  • “Crack-Spread Hedging: Accounting for Time-Varying Volatility Spillovers in Energy Futures Markets.” (With M.S. Haigh.) Journal of Applied Econometrics. 2002.
  • “Inverse Demand Systems and Choice of Functional Form.” European Economic Review.  2002.
  • “Endogenous Risk in Rational Expectations Commodity Models:  A Multivariate GARCH-M Approach.” (With S.V. Aradhyula.) Journal of Empirical Finance. 1998.
  • “Economic Behavior Under Uncertainty:  A Joint Analysis of Risk Preferences and Technology.” (With J.-P. Chavas.)  Review of Economics and Statistics. 1996.