About Me
I am a Ph.D. Candidate at Kansas State University in the Department of Agricultural Economics, advised by Dr. Nelson B. Villoria.
I am currently on the job market, and will graduate in the summer of 2026.
- You can view my CV here.
- You can view my resume here.
- My first job market paper is available here. This paper examines the potential effect of the EU Deforestation Reduction Regulation on global soy trade and its possible implication for deforestation associated to soybean production.
- My second job market paper is available here. This paper quantifies how strongly international demand for agricultural commodities causes deforestation across regions, filling an important empirical gap of commodity-level deforestation study.
- Teaching Statement: here.
- Research Statement: here.
Research Interests
My research interests lie at the intersection of production, trade and the environment. My recent work focuses on the impacts of the EUDR on global soy trade and tropical deforestation, the relationship between market demand (domestic plus international) and land use changes, including deforestation, and how the land price mechanism transfers global land pressure, intermediated by international trade, to local land use decisions.
The connection between production, trade, and environment is a multidimensional concern, involving research initiatives from many disciplinary cores, such as:
- Agricultural economics
- Earth and environmental sciences
- Geography
- Data science
- Policy and international relations
My goal is to contribute to this critical area of research through transdisciplinary collaboration leveraging statistical and data science methods. My specific focus lies in applying economics and employing econometrics tools to address this challenge.
If you would like to connect or discuss potential collaborations, please feel free to reach out to me at paudel.manoz55@gmail.com.
Background
I come from a typical subsistence-based farming household in Nepal. My parents manage the kitchen gardens with seasonal vegetables around the house, keep one or two buffaloes in the shed for dairy and grow staple crops (usually rice in summer and pulses/oilseeds in winter) in the nearby fields. I spent my childhood studying and helping them on the farm and in the kitchen garden in my spare time. My upbringing serves as a cornerstone for my commitment to the land-grant missions: teaching, research and outreach in agricultural economics.