Bruce L. Ahrendsen
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness 214 Agriculture Building
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701
Phone: 479/575-6643
Fax: 479/575-5306
ahrend@uark.edu
Background
Dr. Ahrendsen is a native of Iowa with a B.S. degree from Iowa State University and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in economics from North Carolina State University. He was raised on a family farm in Iowa. The farm operation consisted of corn, soybeans, hay, oats, farrow-to-finish hogs, beef cow-calf, and finished cattle. Following graduation from Iowa State University, Dr. Ahrendsen held a position in Iowa with the Farm Service Agency, formerly Farmers Home Administration, where he supervised U.S. Department of Agriculture farm and housing credit programs. Dr. Ahrendsen has been in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas since 1990. He has taught an undergraduate course in agricultural finance and graduate courses in financial management, quantitative methods, econometrics, and international agribusiness.
Dr. Ahrendsen’s major research interests include issues of financial institutions and markets, credit evaluation, financial management, credit programs, risk management, farmland leasing, and asset valuation. He is a principal of the Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance which is jointly sponsored by the University of Arkansas and the University of Illinois. The Center focuses on the issues affecting the availability and effective use of financial capital for farm and rural businesses. He has published his research in a wide variety of professional journals and other publications. Dr. Ahrendsen has worked in the Slovak Republic in central Europe where he was invited to provide recommendations to the Ministry of Agriculture relative to the financial difficulties of its agricultural sector. He also serves on the Executive Editorial Board of the scientific journal Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce and the Board of the International Network for the MBA in Agribusiness and Commerce, which organizes and reviews programs in Europe, and he has taught in the International MBA programs at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland. In recognition of his scholarly achievements, Dr. Ahrendsen is listed in the International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, Who’s Who in Collegiate Faculty,and Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, and his research was awarded the Distinguished Paper of the Small Firm Financial Research Symposium.
The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance http://www.ace.uiuc.edu/center/
Education
- 1990 Ph.D. in Economics North Carolina State University
Major: Agricultural Economics Minor: Statistics - 1987 Master of Economics North Carolina State University
Major: Economics Minor: Statistics - 1983 Bachelor of Science Iowa State University
Major: Agricultural Business Minor: Agricultural Finance, Mgmt.
Courses Taught
- AGEC 4143 Agricultural Finance (junior/senior level)
- AGEC 5143 Financial Management in Agriculture (masters level)