Rate My Professor Jeffrey Dorfman

Jeffrey Dorfman served as a professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia for 34 years, from 1989 until his retirement in August 2023, contributing significantly to Business & Economics through his expertise in agricultural economics, food industry management, and public policy analysis. He earned his B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis in 1987 as valedictorian and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the same institution in 1989. At UGA, Dorfman advanced from Assistant Professor (1989-1993) to Associate Professor (1993-1998) and full Professor (1998-2023) in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He held leadership positions including Interim Department Head (2006-2008), Coordinator of the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development (1997-1999), and Acting Assistant Director of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations (1998). Additionally, he served as Georgia's State Fiscal Economist from 2019 to 2023, delivering economic forecasts, modeling, and policy advice to state officials. Dorfman also taught courses in microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory and policy, economics of the food industry, and food policy, earning repeated recognition as the department's Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher (1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2011) and Outstanding Graduate Faculty Teacher (1991, 1992).

Dorfman's research specializes in the economics and management of the food industry, commodity markets, pricing, marketing, and policy impacts, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), meat recalls, hurricane losses to agriculture, and monetary policy effects on commodities. He authored influential books such as Economics and Management of the Food Industry (Routledge, 2014) and Bayesian Economics Through Numerical Methods: A Guide to Econometrics and Decision-Making with Prior Information (Springer-Verlag, 1997). Key publications include "Re-Examining the SNAP Benefit Cycle Allowing for Heterogeneity" in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (2019), "The Long-Term Effects of Meat Recalls on Futures Markets" in the same journal (2019), "Estimating Agricultural Losses from a Hurricane" in Journal of Agribusiness (2018), and "Learning and Synergy in Effects of Informal Labor Sharing Arrangements" in World Development (2017). His scholarship earned him election as a Fellow of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (2013), the Outstanding Article in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2021 for a co-authored paper), Southern Agricultural Economics Association Distinguished Teaching of a Course Award (2004), D.W. Brooks Distinguished Teaching Award (2004), and Gamma Sigma Delta Junior Faculty Award of Merit for Research (1995). Dorfman's work has informed policymakers through op-eds, congressional contacts, and state fiscal roles, enhancing economic decision-making in agriculture and beyond.