The State of Knowledge: Research Reviews in the JAE
Wilfrid Legg26/09/2026
The State of Knowledge: Research Reviews in the JAE
Among the many books on writing literature reviews, Tony Greenfield in one of the earliest guides, Research Methods for Postgraduates (Oxford University Press, 2002), stated that a literature review:
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Helps you to discover the research that has been conducted on a topic already and identifies gaps in current knowledge
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Increases the breadth of your knowledge in your area of research
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Helps you identify seminal works in your area
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Allows you to provide the intellectual context for your work and position your research with other, related research
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Provides you with opposing viewpoints
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Helps you to discover research methods that may be applicable to your work.
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A literature review is not only a valuable resource for postgraduates but also for practising (and retired) academics to keep abreast of developments in specific areas of research.
David Stead in A Centenary History of the Agricultural Economics Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026, pp. 214-217) records that in 1966 the Agricultural Economics Society (AES) Executive Committee considered how the Society could do more to encourage and guide research. In 1967 the Committee recommended commissioning special extended reviews to cover the existing state of knowledge and desirable advances in information and techniques in particular fields. A special research sub-committee was appointed to advise the Executive Committee and to administer any review projects.
The first of these commissioned review articles appeared in the Journal of Agricultural Economics (JAE) in 1970. An honorarium plus expenses was paid to the author and the article was also published as an offprint (for 10 shillings, or about £10 at today’s prices). A note by the then JAE editor, Oliver Beilby (Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland), explained that ‘these articles are intended to review the state of knowledge and available data on specific subjects, to indicate the methodological and theoretical problems involved and to consider the needs for further more detailed research.’
Between 1970 and 2000, the JAE published ten commissioned review articles:
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Land use studies in Britain: a review of the literature with special reference to applications of cost-benefit analysis (George Peters 1970)
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Agriculture in economic development (Dennis Thornton 1973)
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Agricultural policies in developed countries: a review (Tim Josling 1974)
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Data in agriculture: a review with special reference to farm management research, policy and advice in Britain (Christophe Barnard 1975)
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Agricultural marketing: a review of the literature of marketing theory and selected applications (David Bateman 1976)
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Rural sociology and its relevance to the agricultural economist: a review (Howard Newby 1982)
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Agricultural co-operative theory: a review (Clare LeVay 1983)
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The farm as a family business: a review (Ruth Gasson et al. 1988)
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Agricultural trade policy analysis and international trade theory: a review of recent developments (Donald MacLaren 1991)
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A review of the economics of biological natural resources (Ben White 2000)
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The first nine of these were commissioned by the research sub-committee. In 1990 the sub-committee was disbanded. Their commissioning remit passed to the JAE editorial committee, who commissioned the tenth article in the above list. Since then – in particular in recent years – several literature review articles have been published in the Journal, all of which are products of collaborative research. Examples include:
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Non-tariff measures in agri-food trade (Santeramo et al., JAE 70/3 2009)
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Farmer risk preferences in Europe (Iver et al., JAE 71/1 2020)
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Farmer behaviour as reasoned action (Sok et al., JAE 72/2 2021)
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Behaviour factors and opportunity costs in farmers’ participation in agri-environmental schemes (Schaub et al., JAE 74/3 2023)
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Farmers’ ex ante preferences to design agri environmental contracts (Schulze et al., JAE 75/1 2024)
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Farmer adoption of ecological practices (Thompson et al., JAE 75/1 2024)
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Consumer preferences for gene edited food (Asioli et al., JAE 77/1 2026)
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Some AES Presidential Addresses have also included a review of the research literature, for instance Tim Lloyd on Forty years of price transmission research in the food industry (delivered in 2016). Moreover, special focus topic sections have featured recently in the JAE: Agricultural trade in countering the effects of extreme weather, in 2025; and Adoption of sustainable livestock innovation in Latin America, in 2026.
Several of the original commissioned review articles were widely cited. Many of the more recent literature reviews have been widely cited too. Might it be useful for the AES to invite suggestions for areas or topics (and authors) in agricultural economics and related disciplines that could be the subject of literature reviews in the JAE but which are currently lacking across the spectrum of relevant journals or online blogs?
Wilfrid Legg (formerly OECD and Honorary Secretary of the AES 2006-2026)