Do Government Economists Value AAEA Conferences?

This article examines the importance and value of attending the annual summer conference of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) by U.S. Federal government economists. A choice-based conjoint analysis of government funding of five research-facilitating resources, including travel and nontravel resources, shows that respondents have a clear preference for their government agency funding the travel-related resources over the other resources. Furthermore, using the contingent valuation method, we find that these economists would have been willing to pay $195 to $620 to have attended their last AAEA conference, with the bounds on this range depending on modeling assumptions.