Each year the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) acknowledges and supports emerging scholars in the field of agricultural and applied economics, through the awarding of an Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award. We’re proud to announce that AAE PhD candidate Tara Mittelberg, was named the 2024 recipient for her work on “The Relationship between the ‘Forced Labor Dirty List’ and agricultural transactions in Brazil”. Mittelberg was nominated by co-advisors Holly Gibbs and Jeremy Foltz, AAE faculty member.
Mittelberg’s research interest focuses on international supply chains, specifically those originating in tropical forest landscapes. This led to her study of selling behavior of Brazilian cattle ranchers. In 2004 Brazil enacted legislation that introduced a public registry of employers who have been found to employ modern slave labor. Using a unique data set and the latest econometric methods, Mittelberg investigates modern slave labor in agricultural supply chains. She presents one of the first quantitative studies on how anti-slavery policy impacts firm-level outcomes for perpetrators. This work will hopefully influence policymakers and those involved in the design of supply chain systems.
The goal of AAE is to bring novel data and the latest econometric methods together, providing an analysis that may change agents and policy makers alike. Mittelberg’s thesis is a timely example of how applied economists can take on important issues, shining a light on matters which receive little attention. Her work has received attention by policy makers and company leaders in Brazil, suggesting interest in the topic which will hopefully influence the implementation of policy change.