About

Dr. Conner Mullally is an Associate Professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. He holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis, earned in 2011, and a B.A. in International and Comparative Policy Studies from Reed College, obtained in 2001. His research primarily focuses on development economics, with particular emphasis on small-scale agriculture and livestock production. Dr. Mullally teaches courses including International Development Policy at the undergraduate level and Applied Microeconometrics for Ph.D. students. His academic and research activities are centered around understanding and addressing issues related to agricultural development and resource economics.

Research topics

• Economics
• Financial economics
• Business
• Computer Science
• Actuarial science
• Psychology
• Medicine
• Geography
• Finance
• Agricultural economics
• Microeconomics
• Econometrics

Selected publications

• Workfare and forest cover: The case of NREGS in India

  Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association · 2026-03-01

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract We examine the impacts of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the world's largest workfare program, on forest cover as proxied by vegetation density. We estimate null effects on vegetation for the overall sample as well as for the subsample where we are best able to isolate changes in forest cover, but we find significant treatment effect heterogeneity, with program impacts mediated by pre‐treatment cropland expansion trends and market access. Our findings suggest that any positive and negative effects of NREGS on forest cover offset one another on average, but that program impacts varied by context.

  PublisherDOI

• The varying effects of dollar stores on food access: A machine learning analysis

  American Journal of Agricultural Economics · 2025-10-31

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract Dollar store proliferation across the United States since the early 2000s has prompted numerous communities to enact policies restricting their growth. Motivated by policy concerns about reduced food access, we investigate whether dollar store entry reduces access to grocery stores, measured by the presence of grocery stores near households. We find significant effects in urban block groups that experience dollar store entry with a single grocery store at baseline, constituting 14% of treated urban block groups from 2006 to 2020. Urban‐area impacts are strongly correlated with the Black population share, poverty rate, dependence on public assistance, and levels of vacant housing and vehicle access. Rural‐area effects are negligible or zero in our main analyses, though incorporating smaller retailers in our food access definition reveals modest but significant impacts. Food access concerns driving dollar store policies may be valid in specific communities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Poverty prediction and targeting over time and space: Evidence from Nigeria

  Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · 2025-03-11

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Understanding poverty dynamics is crucial to target and tailor economic policies in developing countries like Nigeria—a country at the risk of hosting about a quarter of all people living in poverty worldwide. To facilitate the targeting of poverty‐reducing interventions, we build a nationally representative panel dataset spanning 2011–2019 with more than a hundred covariates and apply econometric and machine learning tools to predict and examine factors associated with the static, transient, and persistent poverty status of Nigerian households. Results show that demographic factors, asset holdings, access to infrastructure, and housing indicators can accurately predict poverty in 80% of cases.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Matching property rights and transboundary ecological processes: The case of Norwegian salmon aquaculture

  American Journal of Agricultural Economics · 2025-11-07 · 7 citations

  article

  Abstract Transboundary ecological processes, such as the spread of pests and diseases, require management strategies that align property rights with the spatial scale of these processes. The existing literature is predominantly based on theoretical models and qualitative case studies, and has posited that coordinated management can often mitigate spatial externalities. However, robust causal assessments of the effects of coordinated management remain scarce. To address the issue empirically, we differentiate between the probability of an initial salmon lice infestation (the extensive margin) and the severity of infestation once it occurs (the intensive margin) using a uniquely comprehensive dataset from Norwegian salmon aquaculture. The findings reveal that while ownership concentration does not significantly alter the likelihood of infestation, it substantially reduces severity by enabling coordinated management practices. This divergence demonstrates that firm incentives vary across these two dimensions. Although the empirical setting focuses on salmon lice in salmon aquaculture, the findings carry broader implications for industries facing similar spatial‐dynamic externalities. In particular, ownership consolidation can encourage coordinated investments and interventions, potentially reducing the underinvestment typically observed when multiple firms share biologically connected resources.

  PublisherDOI

• Matching Property Rights and Transboundary Ecological Processes: The Case of Norwegian Salmon Aquaculture

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Does Peer Adoption Increase the Diffusion of Pollution Prevention Practices?

  Land Economics · 2024-07-23

  article

  In the article “Does Peer Adoption Increase the Diffusion of Pollution Prevention Practices?,” by Xiang Bi, Conner Mullally, and Shweta Gaonkar, published in the February 2021 issue of Land Economics (vol. 97 [1] 224–45), the second author’s first name was incorrectly spelled as “Connor

  PublisherDOI

• Going the Distance: Hybrid Vocational Training for Women in Nepal

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Is environmental consciousness associated with organic food consumption?: A revealed preference approach

  Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association · 2024-04-22 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract This study analyzes NielsenIQ household scanner data, exploring the environmental motivation behind organic food consumption using single‐use plastics spending as a proxy for environmental concern. To investigate the relationship between the two environmental behaviors, organic food and single‐use plastic, the study utilizes the instrumental variable approach to account for the potential endogeneity in revealed preference data. Results show a significant negative association between single‐use plastic and organic food purchases, underscoring environmental concern as one of the motives for choosing organic foods. The findings indicate that organic food marketing should emphasize environmental benefits to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Assessing the Conventional Wisdom on Dollar Store Locations Through Machine Learning

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Going the Distance: Hybrid Vocational Training for Women in Nepal

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sarah Janzen

  17 shared

• Nicholas Magnan

  University of Georgia

  16 shared

• Marup Hossain

  10 shared

• M. Niaz Asadullah

  7 shared

• Jaclyn D. Kropp

  6 shared

• Shourish Chakravarty

  Southwest Florida Research

  6 shared

• Xiang Bi

  6 shared

• Alessandro Maffioli

  Islamic Development Bank

  5 shared

Education

• PhD, Agricultural and Resource Economics

  University of California Davis

  2011

• BA

  Reed College

  2001