College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Bio-Info

• Robert Dale Stevens Obituary

Professor Robert (Bob) Dale Stevens lived north of Boston in North Andover, Massachusetts, after birth in 1927.  His father was a textile manufacturer who supervised a large gentleman’s farm.  Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, Bob served in the U. S. Army in 1951-52.  In 1953 as part of his MS program in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Cornell he worked on a research assistantship, participating on a summer survey team on insurance held by farmers in New York.  He also worked the summer of 1954 on the Cornell-Peru Project, in Hacienda VICOS, Peru.  

Following completion of his MS program at Cornell, he worked as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 1956-7.  He also held a Ford Foundation Fellowship for research in Lebanon, 1957-8.  He completed his Ph.D at Cornell in 1959 with fields in: agronomy, anthropology, economics and agricultural development.

Early in his professional career he held a position as Visiting Professor, Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs, New York, N. Y., assigned to the National College of Agriculture, Bao Loc, South Vietnam. His assignments were teaching and completing research in French over the period, 1959-61.  He later worked from 1962-64 as an Agricultural Economist in the Economic Development Branch, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

From 1964-1990, Professor Stevens was at Michigan State University in the Department of Agricultural Economics.  He taught, advised graduate students and completed research on the economics of agricultural development.  He was also a Professor of Health Economics, with a half-time appointment in the College of Human Medicine, M. S. U. from 1974 -1990.

Students

Student  Mentoring

• List of advisees and respective theses/dissertations topics

Teaching Experience

• Professor Stevens taught undergraduate courses on the economics of agricultural development.  He also authored or co-authored various text books used in teaching in this area (view books)
• He taught in the National College of Agriculture, Bao Loc, South Vietnam in 1959-1961.

Pubs Online

• View List of publications/presentations in agricultural economics & economics of health issues
• Selected  publications, many downloadable
  • MSU Library
  • AgEcon Search
  • Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (Cornell Library)
  • JSTOR author - search
  • USAID Development Experience Clearing House
  • HathiTrust Digital Library
  • Books World Cat

Notable Docs/Pres

• The Growing Importance of Elderly in Michigan Counties. 1981. by Lea A. Isgur and Robert D. Stevens.  Department of Community Health Services. MSUExtension Bulletin e1584.
• Rural Development Programs for Adaption from Comilla, Bangladesh.  1972.  Robert D. Stevens. Agricultural Economics Report No. 215, MSU.
• The International Dimensions of the Department of Agricultural Economics – History, Challenges and Guidelines for 1965-1970.  1966.  Robert D. Stevens, Committee Chairperson
• Elasticity of Food Consumption Associated with Changes in Income in Developing Countries. 1965. Robert Dale Stevens. Development and Trade Analysis Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
• How the US Improved its Agriculture. 1964. By Christensen, R. P., Hendrix, W. E., and Stevens, Robert D. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Economic Research Service
  
• Agricultural Economics Department Faculty International Activities: 1933 - 1965. by Robert D. Stevens
• Documentation of Robert Stevens participation in the Cornell VICOS Project - 1954. 
  
  • Short Story with illustrations, about Stevens’ participation in the Cornell-VICOS Project.
    • Working on an MS degree thesis project in Agricultural Economics at Cornell, Robert Stevens obtained field research support from the Anthropoligy Department at Cornell to spend the summer of 1954 in Peru, South America working on a study of the economics of agricultural production on the Hacienda VICOS.  The following are a series of images of the field notebook he used in this work.
      
      • Image of the field notebook used during this project
      • Inside cover identification notes
      • Newark -  Lima flight notes
      • Trip to Chimbote notes
      • Pages with field work codes and observation variables to include in field notes
      • Items attached at back of field book wherein Stevens invented an early version of an I-Pad for field work: for 1) sharpening pencil during field work, 2) drawing field maps, 3) making notes in duplicate, with carbon paper!

  • Research Report Completed

    • Agricultural Production on Hacienda VICOS: Description and Analysis of a Hacienda Agricultural Society in the Andes of Peru. 1955. By Robert D. Stevens, Cornell Graduate Student
    • The Traditional Agricultural System of Hacienda VICOS - An Analysis of Agricultural Production in the Andes Mountains of Peru. 1967. By Professor Robert D. Stevens, Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan state University, Agricultural Economics - Miscellaneous - 1967-11. (Version of the original 1955 report, revised for teaching purposes at MSU)

  • Additional information about the Cornell University VICOS Project

    • VICOS: An Online Virtual Tour from 1952 to the present – Cornell University
    • VICOS CBS News Video Story “So That Men Are Free” 1963.  By Charles Kuralt and Walter Cronkite.
    • The Vicos Experiment: A Study of the Impacts of the Cornell-Peru Project in a Highland Community. April 1982. by Barbara D. Lync. A.I.D. Evaluation Special Study No. 7
    • Vicos and Beyond: A Half Century of Applying Anthropology in Peru.  ed. by Tom Greaves, Ralph Bolton, and Florencia Zapata.  View Google Review
    • Cornell-Peru Project – Cornell Cast Videos (7 video Series “From Serfs to Political Actors”)
      • 1. From Serfs to Political Actors: Were Cornell’s Changes in and Andean Community for the Best?
      • 2. The Cornell-Peru Project
      • 3. Cornell’s Improvements
      • 4. Unintended Consequences
      • 5. How Vicosinos are doing today
      • 6. Ecotourism and Vicos culture
      • 7. From Serfs to Political Actors: Were Cornell’s Changes in and Andean Community for the Best?
    • VICOS: La intervención antropológica. 1950 - 1960’s (11-12-2012).  Por Gran Combo

Projects

• Pakistan Academies for Rural Development. [1957 – 1972]