Megan Sheahan
Megan Sheahan is a Research Support Specialist at Cornell University. Her research interests broadly include agricultural development, food security, and poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa and India. She holds an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University where her master's thesis explored the profitability and use of inorganic fertilizer in Kenya using household-level panel data she helped to collect. Megan also holds a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Boston University where interest in Fair Trade coffee prompted a senior research project on how the certification was affecting smallholder farmers in two cooperatives in Mexico and Tanzania. Megan has also worked as a consultant for various organizations and, prior to her graduate studies, full time at the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and Chemonics International. In her free time, Megan enjoys ballet, modern dance, yoga, and cooking and traveling with her husband, Graham.
Journal Articles
- Megan Sheahan, Joshua Ariga, and T.S. Jayne. “Modeling the impacts of input market reforms on fertilizer demand and maize production: An example from Kenya” Journal of Agricultural Economics, forthcoming.
- Kazushi Takahasi, Munenobu Ikegami, Megan Sheahan, and Christopher Barrett“Experimental evidence on the drivers of index-based livestock insurance demand in southern Ethiopia” World Development, forthcoming.
- Megan Sheahan, Roy Black, T.S. Jayne, Are Kenyan farmers under-utilizing fertilizer? Implications for input intensification strategies and research, Food Policy, Volume 41, August 2013, Pages 39-52
Working Papers
- Megan Sheahan, Christopher B. Barrett, Casey Goldvale, "The unintended consequences of agricultural input intensification: Human health implications of agro-chemical use in Sub-Saharan Africa"; added November 2015.
- Christopher B. Barrett, Luc Christiaensen, Megan Sheahan and Abebe Shimeles, "The Structural Transformation of Rural Africa: On the Current State of African Food Systems and Rural Non-Farm Economies"; added November 2015.
- Megan Sheahan and Christopher B. Barrett, "Ten striking facts about agricultural input use in Sub-Saharan Africa," September 2014 version.
- Megan Sheahan, Yanyan Liu, Christopher B. Barrett, and Sudha Narayanan. “Preferential resource spending under an employment guarantee: The political economy of MGNREGS in Andhra Pradesh,” November 2015 version.
- Megan Sheahan and Christopher B. Barrett, "Understanding the agricultural input landscape in sub-Saharan Africa: Recent plot, household, and community-level evidence," World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7014, August 2014.
Presentations