Thomas Reardon
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Publications on Google Scholar
Tom Reardon is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Tom has been at MSU since 1992; IFPRI Research Fellow 1986-1991; Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow with IFPRI in Burkina Faso 1984-1986; Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1984, and masters from the Université de Nice and Columbia University. Tom is also Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI since 2022.
Tom researches the transformation of food value chains: (1) the “supermarket revolution” and the "food service revolution" (2) the “Quiet Revolution” in the “Hidden Middle”, a term coined by him for SMEs in the midstream of value chains; (3) R&D and farm inputs supply chain transformation; (4) e-commerce and food delivery intermediaries. He studies the impacts of these transformations on food industry business strategies, on farms, consumption/nutrition, and employment. Tom also researches “Rural Nonfarm Employment” inside and outside of food systems.
Tom works mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and has stayed 21 years in those regions. His current field survey projects and primary data analysis are in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania in Africa and India; he current non-field analysis is on survey data from Bangladesh, China, Colombia, India, and Myanmar.
Tom is Fellow of Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and Honorary Life Member (equivalent of Fellow) of International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). He has 49,040 citations in Google Scholar with an H index of 101 as of October 2, 2024. He ranks in the top 1.7% of 68,000 economists globally tracked by IDEAS/REPEC. Tom is in Who’s Who in Economics; was featured on the front page of the New York Times; and was the first agrifood economist invitee to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Tom teaches a graduate class on food systems organization (AFRE 841), a graduate class on agriculture in international development (AFRE 861), and an undergraduate class on international agrifood markets (AFRE 327) in fall semesters; he mentors doctoral and masters students (100 since 1992).
Selection of Articles since January 2021
Belton, B., P. Fang, T. Reardon. 2024. Combine harvester outsourcing services and seasonal rural non-farm employment in Myanmar. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. September: 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13480
Reardon, T., T. Awokuse, B. Belton, L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Minten, G. Nguyen, S. Qanti, J. Swinnen, R. Vos, D. Zilberman. 2024. Emerging outsource agricultural services enable farmer adaptation in agrifood value chains: A product cycle perspective. Food Policy. 127, August: 102711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102711
Hazell, P., S. Haggblade, T. Reardon. 2024. Transformation of the rural nonfarm economy during rapid urbanization & structural transformation in developing regions. Annual Review of Resource Economics. 16, July:14.1–14.23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-101623-105713
Meemken, E-M., D. Charlton, L. Christiaensen, M. Maertens, C. Oya, T. Reardon, H. Stemmler. 2024. Better data and knowledge for decent work in the global food system. Nature Food. June 18. http://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01002-0
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-024-01002-0
Reardon, T., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Belton, M. Dolislager, B. Minten, B. Popkin, R. Vos. 2024. African domestic supply booms in value chains of fruits, vegetables, and animal products fueled by spontaneous clusters of SMEs. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. Published “early view” April. http://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13436
Vargas, C.M., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2024. Vulnerability of Nigerian Maize Traders to a confluence of climate, violence, disease, and cost shocks. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies. Published (“early cite”) April. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-08-2023-0214
Dzanku, F.M., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2024. The Importance and determinants of purchases in rural food consumption in Africa: Implications for food security strategies. Global Food Security 40: 100739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2024.100739
Sauer, C., T. Reardon, N. Mason. 2023. The Poor Do Not Pay More: Evidence from Tanzanian consumer food expenditures controlling for the food environment. Agricultural Economics. First published online, September. http://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12799
Zilberman, D., A. Huang, L. Goldberg, T. Reardon. 2023. The evolution of symbiotic innovation, water, and agricultural supply chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 45(3), September: 1592-1603. http://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13342
Naziri, D., Belton, B., Loison, S.A., Reardon, T., Shikuku, K.M., Kaguongo, W., Maina, K., Ogello, E., Obiero, K. 2023. COVID-19 disruptions and pivoting in SMEs in the hidden middle of Kenya’s potato and fish value chains. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. 26 (3): 409-433. http://doi.org/10.22434/IFAMR2022.0120
Liverpool-Tasie, L.S.O., T. Reardon, C.M. Parkhi, M. Dolislager. 2023. Nigerians in poverty consume little wheat and wheat self-sufficiency programs will not protect them from price shocks related to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Nature Food. April 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00722-z
Faye, N.F., T. Fall, T. Reardon, V. Theriault, Y. Ngom, M.B. Barry, M.R. Sy. 2023. Consumption of fruits and vegetables by types and sources across urban and rural Senegal. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies. Published online March11. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-05-2022-0090
Reardon, T, R. Vos. 2023. How resilience innovations in food supply chains are revolutionizing logistics, wholesale trade, and farm services in developing countries. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. Published online Feb15 2023. https://doi.org/10.22434/IFAMR2022.0138
Barrett, C.B., T. Reardon, J. Swinnen, D. Zilberman. 2022. Agri-food Value Chain Revolutions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Journal of Economic Literature. 60(4): 1316-1377. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20201539
Macchiavello, R., T. Reardon, T. Richards. 2022. Empirical Industrial Organization Economics to Analyze Developing Country Food Value Chains. Annual Review of Resource Economics. 14, October: 193-220. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-101721-023554
Parkhi, C.M., LSO Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2022. Do smaller chicken farms use more antibiotics? Evidence on antibiotics diffusion from Nigeria. Agribusiness: An International Journal. September. http://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21770 open access
Meemken, E-M., M.F. Bellemare, T. Reardon, C.M. Vargas. 2022. Research and policy for the food-delivery revolution. Science. 377(6608), August: 810-813. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2182
Dolislager, M. LSO Liverpool-Tasie, N.M. Mason, T. Reardon, D. Tschirley. 2022. Consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods by the African poor: evidence from Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Agricultural Economics. August. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12738. Open access.
Zilberman, D., T. Reardon, J. Silver, L. Lu, A. Heiman. 2022. From the Lab to the Consumer: Innovation, Supply Chain, and Adoption with Applications to Natural Resources. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA (PNAS). 119(23)e2115880119. Published online June1. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115880119
Maredia, M.K., Adenikinju, A., Belton, B., Chapoto, A., Faye, N.F., Liverpool-Tasie, S., Olwande, J., Reardon, T., Theriault, V., Tschirley, D. 2022. COVID-19's impacts on incomes and food consumption in urban and rural areas are surprisingly similar: Evidence from five African countries, Global Food Security. 33, 100633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100633
Zimmerer, K.S., C.S. Duvall, E.C. Jaenicke, L.M. Minaker, T. Reardon, K.C. Seto. 2021. Urbanization and agrobiodiversity: Leveraging a key nexus for sustainable development. One Earth. (Cell Press) Perspective. 4(11) November 19: 1557-1568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.10.012 (open access)
Meyer, F., T. Reardon, T., M. van der Merwe, D. Jordaan, M. Delport, G. van der Burgh. 2021. Hotspots of vulnerability: Analysis of food value chain disruptions by COVID-19 policies in South Africa. Agrekon, 60(4), December. https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.2007779
Reardon, T., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Minten. 2021. Quiet Revolution by SMEs in the midstream of value chains in developing regions: wholesale markets, wholesalers, logistics, and processing. Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01224-1 ; open access PDF at https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12571-021-01224-1.pdf
Meemken, E-M., C.B. Barrett, H.C. Michelson, M. Qaim, T. Reardon, J. Sellare. 2021. Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. 2: 758-765. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00360-3
Sauer, C.M., T. Reardon, D. Tschirley, S. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Awokuse, R. Alphonce, D. Ndyetabula, & B. Waized. 2021. Consumption of processed food & food away from home in big cities, small towns, and rural areas of Tanzania. Agricultural Economics, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12652
Reardon, T., A. Heiman, L. Lu, CSR Nuthalapati, R. Vos, D. Zilberman. 2021. “Pivoting” by food industry firms to cope with COVID-19 in developing regions: e-commerce and “co-pivoting” delivery-intermediaries. Agricultural Economics. 52(3), June. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12631
Reardon, T., B. Belton, LSO Liverpool-Tasie, L. Lu, CSR Nuthalapati, O. Tasie, D. Zilberman. 2021. E-Commerce’s Fast-Tracking Diffusion and Adaptation in Developing Countries. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 02 March. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13160,
Liverpool-Tasie, S.L.O., A. Sanou, T. Reardon, B. Belton. 2021. Demand for Imported versus Domestic Fish in Nigeria: Panel Data Evidence. Journal of Agricultural Economics. 1-23. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1477-9552.12423
Reardon, T., D. Tschirley, L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Awokuse, J. Fanzo, B. Minten, R. Vos, M. Dolislager, C. Sauer, R. Dhar, C. Vargas, A. Lartey, A. Raza, B.M. Popkin 2021. The processed food revolution in African food systems and the double burden of malnutrition. Global Food Security 28: 100466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100466
Dolislager, M., Reardon, T., Arslan, A., Fox, L., Liverpool-Tasie, S., Sauer, C., Tschirley, D., 2021. Youth and adult agrifood system employment in developing regions: Rural (Peri-urban to hinterland) vs urban. Journal of Development Studies. 57(4): 571-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1808198
Liverpool-Tasie, L.S.O, T. Reardon, B. Belton. 2021. “Essential non-essentials”: COVID-19 policy missteps in Nigeria rooted in persistent myths about African food value chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 43(1), March: 205-224. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13139
Related Work
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MSU Thomas Reardon featured in The Guardian
Published on November 3, 2023
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Confluence of climate, violence, disease, and cost shocks: vulnerability of and impacts on Nigerian Maize Traders
Published on September 6, 2023
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Heterogeneous consumption patterns of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria: A panel data analysis
Published on July 14, 2023
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Rapid Reconnaissance of the Value Chains for Tomato and Green Leafy Vegetables in Nigeria
Published on May 22, 2023
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COVID-19 disruptions and pivoting in SMEs in the hidden middle of Kenya’s potato and fish value chains
Published on April 19, 2023
-
The evolution of symbiotic innovation, water, and agricultural supply chains
Published on March 23, 2023
-
Consumption of fruits and vegetables by types and sources across urban and rural Senegal
Published on March 14, 2023