Olan D. Forker
Professor Emeritus
Advisor

Staff

Harry M. Kaiser

Olan D. Forker

Yuqing Zheng

Lan Li

Anita S. Vogel

Olan Forker, a professor of agricultural economics, joined the Cornell faculty in 1965. He was department chair for nine years, a faculty member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees for four years, and has been a member of a medium-size food processing company's board of directors since 1974. He has served as president of the American Agricultural Economics Association Foundation and as president of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association. His sabbatical leaves have been spent in the USDA, at the University of Manchester in England, and at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He has conducted research and/or made major presentations in Turkey, Japan, and Spain.

In 1972, I began research on the economics of fluid milk advertising in New York State markets. Since then I, along with my research associates here and colleagues at other universities, have learned a great deal about the economic relationship between advertising expenditures and sales of advertised commodities. For example, research indicates a positive relationship between advertising and sales. It also raises many other questions concerning uncertainties associated with the determination of the appropriate advertising expenditure level and appropriate programs. I chair a national committee made up of colleagues from academia and industry interested in this subject. In addition to the work on generic advertising, I am interested in marketing and pricing questions in general.