New directions and approaches for value chain analysis

Dr Karl Rich

Lab 863 s.r.o.

Czech Republic

The next in the joint seminars presented by the UNE Business School and Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society is to be presented on Monday, 14 July from 2-3 pm in LT2, EBL Building.

System dynamics, multi market and agent-based models have been used quantitatively to study value chains for agricultural and livestock products.  A bourgeoning area of research interest is in the development of market-based approaches to conservation and regional development through the use of qualitative and quantitative value chain tools. By this modelling approach it is possible to improve decision making and policy dialogue, by highlighting the impacts that feedback effects and interactions have in complex systems and developing ways to work across diverse research fields.

Karl M. Rich is Head of Research and Strategy at Lab 863 s.r.o., a boutique research firm in the Czech Republic that conducts applied research on value chain analysis, animal health economics, and regional development. He also holds appointments as a Research Professor (on leave) at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), an adjunct researcher with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and a Visiting Professor in Animal Health and Behavioural Economics at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). He has formerly worked at the American University of Cairo, The International Livestock Research Institute, and the International Food Policy Research Institute. His research interests are in value chain performance, particularly in capturing the dynamics of key variables and relationships in the face of change at retail level, and in response to supply-side fluctuations such as animal disease and drought.  Karl is a widely-published scholar and one of the leading economists that employs systems thinking in primary industry whole-of-chain analysis.