Olga Isengildina Massa

Expertise:

Agribusiness; commodity market price dynamics, forecasting performance and forecasting approaches, and price risk management strategies.

Education

• Ph.D., Mississippi State University, Agricultural Economics, Finance minor, 2000
  
• M.S., Mississippi State University, Agricultural Economics, 1996
  
• B.A., Tashkent State University, English Philology, 1993

Reports:

What Do We Know About the Accuracy and Impact of USDA Reports in the Corn Market?
https://aaec.vt.edu/USDAreports.html

Current research focus:

1. The Farm Financial Conditions Index
2. Can Industry Expectations of Corn and Soybean Production Reports Help Solve the Forecast Combination Puzzle
3. Commodity Volatility Spillover Dynamics Under Extreme Events.
4. The impact of commodity prices on food price inflation
5. Assessment of Student Investment Fund Impact and Learning Outcomes
6. Efficiency of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) prices

Class of 2023 student, B.S. in Agribusiness Management 

"I wanted to express how much your AgYield project has helped me through my internship interview process. I recently applied for a trainee commodity trader internship for Louis Dreyfus.

I was hesitant for my first interviews as I have never had "real-life experience." I had both my first behavioral and technical interviews recently and wanted to let you know that without the experience the AgYield simulator gave me I would not have been confident in my responses. When I explained the project to them they let me know that many trainees they hire actually have no experience, and they were very interested in learning about the simulator. I wanted to let you know how much this has helped me and piqued my interest in the field!"

Courses taught at Virginia Tech

• AAEC 3514 Agricultural Futures and Options
• AAEC 3434 Commodity Price Analysis
• AAEC 4434 Commodity Investing by Students
• AAEC 4504 Agricultural Price Analysis
• AAEC 5134 Agricultural Markets and Prices

Courses taught elsewhere

• Managerial Economics
• Economics for Managers
• Principles of Microeconomics
• Commodity Price Analysis
• Financial Economics
• Commodity Futures
• Futures and Options Markets

Experience

• Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech, 2021 - present
• Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech, 2015 - 2021
• Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, 2013 - Present
• Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Texas at Arlington, 2012 - 2015
• Associate Professor in the John E. Walker Department of Economics, Clemson University, 2012 - 2013
• Assistant Professor in the John E. Walker Department of Economics, Clemson University, 2011 - 2012
• Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, Clemson University, 2006 - 2011
• Visiting Scholar in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001 - 2006
• Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, 2000 - 2001

Selected Awards

Virginia Tech Excellence in Career Advising, 2019-2020

Third Place, Southern Economics Association Poster Competition, February 2013.

Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Outstanding Reviewer Award, 2012.

Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science, Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, 2011-2012.

Isengildina Massa, O., B. Karali, and S.H. Irwin. 2026. “The new grain giants: the reliability of USDA’s corn and soybean production forecasts for Brazil and Argentina." Food Policy, 1 43, 103158, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2026.103158.

Ortez, M.A, O. Isengildina Massa, M.L. Smith, N.O. Widmar. 2026. “Weather Attention in Online Discourse and Price Uncertainty in Agricultural Futures Markets.” Agribusiness, 1 23, https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.70147.

McWilliams, W., S.L. Stewart, O. Isengildina Massa. 2026. “Food price inflation forecasting: Insights from a Macroeconomic Auto-Regressive Random Forest approach.” Food Policy, 1 42, 103115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2026.103115.

Karali, B., O. Isengildina-Massa, and S.H. Irwin. 2025. "Is Being Bold Better? Industry Expectations of USDA Corn and Soybean Production Estimates" Agricultural Economics, 56:802–822, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.70032.

Poghosyan, A.*, O. Isengildina-Massa, and S. Stewart. “Futures-Based Forecasts of Cotton Prices: Beyond Historical Averages.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 2025, 57, 114-134, https://doi.org/10.1017/aae.2024.36.

Isengildina Massa, O., B. Karali, S. Irwin. 2024. “Are USDA forecasts optimal? A systematic review.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 2024;56(3):496-527. doi:10.1017/aae.2024.18.

Wang, Y.*, O. Isengildina Massa, and S. Stewart. 2024. “Time-Varying Reaction of U.S. Meat Demand to Animal Disease Outbreaks.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13431)

Isengildina Massa, O., B. Karali, S. Irwin. 2023. “What do we know about the value and market impact of USDA reports.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 46(2): 698-736 (https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13409).

Stewart, S., O. Isengildina-Massa, Hassman*, C., M. de Leon. 2023. “ETP tracking of U.S. agricultural and energy markets.” Journal of Commodity Markets, 31: 100344 (doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomm.2023.100344.)