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Nicolas Legrand

Research Assistant Professor
Nicolas Legrand
301 Hutcheson Hall
250 Drillfield Drive

My areas of expertise include agricultural economics, agricultural trade policy analysis, applied econometrics and economic analytics, and international development economics. I began working for the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in August 2023 to conduct research for the Center for Agricultural Trade

  • Ph.D., Economics, Paris Saclay University 2016
  • M.S., Energy and Environmental Economics, Paris Saclay University, 2013
  • B.S., Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Paris Saclay University, 2013
  • Nicolas develops and uses economic models to identify and measure the relative contribution of the most important factors to the observed commodity price instability on both the global spot and futures markets.
Experience
  • August 2023-Present: Research Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech
  • Sept. 2021–August 2023: Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Georgetown University (On official long-term mission from INRAE)
  • Sept. 2017–August 2023: Permanent Research Fellow at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAE)
  • Jan.-Sept. 2017: Postdoctoral fellow, Empirical Economics Department, Toulouse School of Economics
  • 2013-2016: Expert mission at the Oil Company Total
  • 2011-2013: Apprentice at the Climate Economics Chair at the Europlace Institute of Finance (EIF): Participation in the research programs of the Agriculture, Food, and Forestry

Referred journals

  • Estimating the Competitive Storage Model with Trending Commodity Prices,” (with C.Gouel); Journal of Applied Econometrics, 32(4),2018,744-763.
  • The Empirical Merit of Structural Explanations of Commodity Price Volatility: Review And Perspectives,” Journal of Economic Surveys, 33(2),2019,639-664.
  • “The empirical relevance of the competitive storage model” by Cafiero et al. (2011): Replication, Robustness and Extension,” forthcoming at Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.
  • “War in Ukraine: The Rational 'Wait and See' Mode of Global Food Markets,” forthcoming at Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy (Invited featured article).