Yefan Nian

Assistant Professor of Agribusiness
Agricultural Sciences Department, Sandhill Research and Education Center

Office: Sandhill Research and Education Center
Phone: 479-502-6270

Email: ynian@clemson.edu
Vita: Download CV
Personal Website: https://yfnian.github.io/

Educational Background

Ph.D. Food and Resource Economics
University of Florida 2023

M.S. Agricultural Economics
University of Arkansas 2018

B.S. Public Administration
South China University of Technology 2013

B.S. Economics and Finance
South China University of Technology 2013

Profile

Dr. Yefan Nian is an assistant professor of agricultural economics. He is located at the Sandhill Research and Education Center in Columbia, SC. His current research program focuses on agribusiness and economics related to specialty crops. His research projects include identifying consumer preferences, exploring marketing opportunities, and addressing technology adoption challenges for specialty crop producers. Meanwhile, He develops economic decision support tools and assesses the economic viability of agricultural production innovations in his outreach effort. Through this work, he aims to provide actionable insights to enhance the sustainability and profitability of specialty crop production systems.

Research Interests

- Agribusiness
- Food Marketing
- Technology Adoption
- Specialty Crops

Publications

Nian, Y., Gao, Z., Zhao, X., & Chen, J. (2025). Making grafting accessible to vegetable producers: An online multistakeholder economic decision-support system for vegetable grafting. Smart Agricultural Technology.

Wang, E., Nian, Y., & Gao, Z. (2025). Chinese consumers’ dish value: A best-worst scaling approach. British Food Journal.

Nian, Y., Gao, Z.,& Zhao, R.(2023). Are people’s daily life habits consistent with their preference for food sustainability labels? Agribusiness: An International Journal, 39(3), 589–622.

Nian, Y., Zhao, R., Tian, S., Zhao, X., & Gao, Z. (2022). Economic analysis of grafted organic tomato production in high tunnels. HortTechnology, 32(5), 459–470.

Van Asselt, J., Nian, Y., Soh, M., Morgan, S., & Gao, Z. (2022). Do plastic warning labels reduce consumers’ willingness to pay for plastic egg packaging?: Evidence from a choice experiment.Ecological Economics, 198, 107460.

Liu, R., Wang, J., Liang, F., Nian, Y., & Ma, H. (2022). What can we learn from the interactions of food traceable attributes?: A case study of fuji apple products in China. Applied Economics, 54(59), 6829–6849.

Nian, Y., Huang, Q., Kovacs, K.F., Henry, C., & Krutz, J. (2020). Water management practices: Use patterns, related factors, and correlations with irrigated acres. Water Resources Research, 56(3), e2019WR025360.

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