Economic development, international trade, exchange rate policy, agricultural policy

Former Director of the Orville and Jane Freeman Center for International Economic Policy. He had appointments in three units of the University of Minnesota: Department of Applied Economics, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the Department of Economics.

He served on the President's Council of Economic Advisors, was Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs and Commodity programs in the USDA, and was Director of Agricultural and Rural Development at the World Bank. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Agricultural Economics Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He has had international teaching, research and advising experience in Latin America, Egypt, India, and Africa.

He has authored six books, edited six others, and published research articles in numerous journals including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, The American Economic Review, Ceres, and Revista Brasileria de Economia.