Faculty Research Developments

Professor Xiaowei Cai’s research is focused on food safety and diet quality, commodity margin analysis and risk management.

Cai is actively seeking research grants from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Agricultural Research Institute. The proposed research projects touch on the topics of the rationality of firm decision making under imperfect competition, identifying the determinants of California’s farmland values, examining the impact of consumer produce purchasing behavior on health outcomes, and estimating how local food environment changes influence household produce purchases.

In addition to her research work, Cai is actively involved in industry outreach. She is working with a California seed company to develop feasible models to improve its sales forecasting techniques and inventory management practices. In February she presented her research paper titled “World of Global Agribusiness" at the annual Young Farmer/Rancher Executive Institute, hosted by Farm Credit West.