Reflections of a Pragmatic Economist
Emery N. Castle
Copublished by OSU Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Foreword by Daniel W. Bromley.
In Reflections of a Pragmatic Economist, Emery Castle traces an intellectual journey that spans more than half a century and has helped shape the fields of agricultural, resource, and rural economics.
Castle’s memoir is grounded in the integration of his personal and professional experiences. He describes his roots as the son of Kansas tenant farmers, his service during World War II, his education, and his academic career, exploring the ways in which these experiences influenced his teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities.
An influential figure in the development of resource and environmental economics, Castle is also the pioneer of a rural economics based in the interdependence of the rural and urban. His memoir reflects the history of ideas in economics and agricultural economics. Drawing on more than ten years of leadership at Resources for the Future, a highly influential think tank on resource and environmental policy research, Castle gives special attention to contrasting elite and land-grant institutions.
Reflections of a Pragmatic Economist will be of particular interest to agricultural, resource, and rural economists, as well as to administrators at institutions of higher education, especially land-grant institutions, and to students and teachers of higher education administration.
About the author
Emery N. Castle is Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University, where he taught agricultural economics for more than twenty-five years and held numerous administrative positions including Dean of the Graduate School, Director of the Water Resources Institute, and Dean of Faculty. For a decade he served as Vice President and then President of the public policy institute, Resources for the Future. He authored the text Farm Business Management and edited The Changing American Countryside: Rural People and Places.
Read more about this author
“The journey recounted here differs in such fundamental ways from the standard autobiography. It differs because it is Emery doing the telling. There are no boastful accounts of intellectual or bureaucratic triumphs. Emery never comes out on top. Emery brings people along. He explains, he teaches, he reasons, and he listens. He brings other people to his side.”
—Daniel W. Bromley, from the Foreword
“He has truly shaped a generation of applied economists.”
—Susan Capalbo, Chair, OSU Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
