I am an applied microeconomist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My research focuses on production economics, agricultural innovation, and the role of institutions in the rural economy.

Leveraging some of my personal experience in the agriculture sector, my research has been focused on topics important to the economics field, including asset replacement, technology adoption, data governance, and institutions. Three of my notable areas of expertise are big data, dairy and livestock markets, and the role of genetic technology in agriculture. For brief summaries of my current projects and copies of my working papers, see the “Research” tab.

At Illinois, I teach a class called “Data Science for Applied Economics” aimed at graduate students in economics. My class materials can be found at this GitHub repo.

For a copy of my CV, click here.

For questions and comments, please feel free to contact me at jhtchns2 at illinois dot edu.

Media mentions: Bloomberg News, Ambrook News, Successful Farming, RFD-TV