David A. Hennessy

David Hennessy is a professor at Iowa State University where he leads a research program on industrialization in agriculture and the role of information in farm-level production decisions and in the provision of safe food. His research also investigates risk issues in commodity markets as well as systemic risks in the agricultural sector.

Hennessy’s scholarship has brought high levels of creativity, vision and rigor to better understanding of a wide array of issues of long-standing and emerging importance in agricultural and food economics.Emphasizing pertinence and modeling elegance, his body of work has reshaped how reflective and interested individuals view issues as diverse as food safety/quality, animal health, farm structure, and risk policy. The need to understand how incentives and institutions affect outcomes in agricultural and food markets has motivated this research whereby he believes that consistency and contextual relevance are necessary if the discipline is to fulfill its land grant teaching, research and outreach missions.

In scholarship, Hennessy has published 83 peer-reviewed journal articles, His research is highly cited, with over 300 citations in the Web of Science and over 1,200 citations in Google Scholar. He appears regularly on lists of productivity and influence in economic scholarship, including RePEc Idea, Tol’s study, and Tom Coupé’s ranking.

Currently an editor of the AJAE, Hennessy has been an associate editor of the AJAE, is an associate editor of Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, and has been on the editorial council of the Journal of Agricultural & Resource Economics. Hennessy’s high quality of work has earned him many accolades including the WAEA award for Outstanding Published Research, AAEA Food Safety and Nutrition Section, Best Economics Paper Award, and the Iowa State University, College of Agriculture Award for Early Achievement in Research.