Bradford Mills

Expertise:

Development economics; international development economics; rural and regional economic development

Education

Ph.D. Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley, 1993

M.S., Agricultural Economics, University of Connecticut, 1986

B.A., Political Science and Religious Studies, Hobart College, 1984

Current Research Focus

• Adaptive social protection systems in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Impacts of Forest Reserve Co-Management
• Heating Assistance Impacts on Household Food Security
• Cross-country comparison of energy efficient technology adoption

Experience

• Full, Associate, and Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech.  Fall 1997 – Present.  Applied research on impact assessment, technology adoption, rural development, and poverty measurement and alleviation.  Graduate instruction in rural development, regional economics, microeconomics, and econometrics.
• Council on Competitiveness Economic Advisory Committee. 2011 – 2015.
• Graduate Program Director, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.  Virginia Tech.  Summer 2008 – Spring 2011.
• Visiting Scientist, Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe. Summer 2007 – Summer 2008.  Sabbatical research on determinants and distributional implications of the adoption of residential energy-saving technologies.
• Research Officer, International Service for National Agricultural Research, (ISNAR).  1995 – Fall 1997.  Research and training activities in national and regional research evaluation and priority setting.
• Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellow, ISNAR.  Posted to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.  1993-1995.  Development of research evaluation methods, including geographic information systems and multiple market equilibrium displacement models.
• Research Support Specialist, Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy Program. 1991-1993.  Design of integrated household surveys to monitor household welfare in Ukraine and Romania.  Analysis of welfare impacts of economic reform in Africa, including the labor market transitions of retrenched public sector workers.  Management of 1991-1992 survey of 1728 households in Conakry Guinea.
• Research Assistant, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, U.C. Berkeley.  1989-1991.
• Research Associate, Gambian Agricultural Research and Diversification Project, International Agricultural Programs, University of Wisconsin.  Posted in The Gambia.  1989. 
• Agricultural Economist (Peace Corps Volunteer), Department of Agricultural Research Services, The Gambia.  1987-1989.

Recent journal articles - see CV for full list

• Bradford Mills, Chi Ta, Duong Ta & Huong Nguyen (2025). Salinity Inundation, Profitability, and Rice Farming Exits in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaa2.70004
• Dung Phuong Le, Fransico Alpizar & Bradford Mills (2025). One Size Does Not Fit All: Planting Calendar as an Adaptation Strategy in the Mekong Delta. Agricultural Economics. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.70045
• Bradford Mills, Dung Phuong Le, Duong Phuc Ta, Lien Nhu, Danh Thanh Vo & Ricardo Labarta (2023). “Intensive and extensive rice farm adaptations in salinity-prone areas of the Mekong Delta.” Climate and Development. 15(2), 162-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2022.2072800
• Ange Kakpo, Bradford Mills and Stéphanie Brunelin (2022). "Weather shocks and food price seasonality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Niger," Food Policy, 112(C). DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102347
• Jianfeng Gao and Bradford Mills (2022). “Influence of weather shocks and coping strategies on food consumption: Evidence from rural Niger”. African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 16(3): 193-215. https://afjare.org/media/articles/2._Gao_and_Mills.pdf 
• Paik S, Le DTP, Nhu LT, Mills BF (2020) Salt-tolerant rice variety adoption in the Mekong River Delta: Farmer adaptation to sea-level rise. PLoS ONE 15(3): e0229464. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229464
• Jianfeng Gao and Bradford Mills (2018). Weather Shocks, Coping Strategies, and Consumption Dynamics in Rural Ethiopia. World Development, 101, 268-283. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.09.002
• Christopher Long, Bradford Mills, and Joachim Schleich. (2018). Characteristics or culture? Determinants of household energy use behavior in Germany and the USA. Energy Efficiency.
• Anthony Murray, Bradford Mills, Genti Kostandini. “Do Improved Groundnut Seed Make African Farmers More Food Secure? Evidence from Uganda.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. 48:3 (2016). 
• Quentin Stoeffler, Bradford Mills, Carlo del Ninno. "Reaching the Poor: Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon." World Development. 83 (July 2016) 244-263.
• Quentin Stoeffler, Jeffrey Alwang, Bradford Mills, Nelson Tarvinga. "Multidimensional Poverty in Crisis: Lessons from Zimbabwe." Journal of Development Studies. 52:3 (2016) 428-446.