Oral Capps Jr.

Dr. Oral Capps Jr. is an Executive Professor, Regents Professor and holder of the Southwest Dairy Marketing Endowed Chair in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. He is also the Co-Director of the Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center (AFCERC) and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Forecasting and Business Analytics, LLC, an economic consulting firm.

Dr. Capps is a demand and price analyst, with particular expertise in econometric modeling and forecasting methods.  He is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in demand analysis, specializing in working with large data bases.  Applied research areas include analyses of expenditure patterns of pre-prepared foods and foods eaten away from home, analyses of health and nutrition issues, policy analyses associated with food assistance programs, uses of scanner-derived information for managerial decision-making in food retailing, and analyses of regional, national, and international markets for the agricultural, agribusiness and financial sectors.  In addition, Dr. Capps specializes in unilateral price effects of mergers and acquisitions, and evaluation of commodity checkoff programs.

He has authored 129 refereed journal articles, and co-authored four books, Food Demand Analysis: Implications for Future Consumption; Introduction to Agricultural Economics, Fifth Edition; Economic Impact of Country-of-Origin Labeling on the U.S. Beef Industry; and Changes in the Sheep Industry in the United States: Making the Transition from Tradition. Another book, A Step-by-Step Approach to Economic Modeling and Forecasting, is in process. Additionally, he has produced a series of detailed notes to accompany the seminars conducted for The SAS Institute, Inc. entitled, An Introduction to Applied Econometrics and Advanced Topics in Applied Econometrics.

Dr. Capps has been honored with numerous awards for his teaching and research. In 1995, Dr. Capps was honored at Texas A&M University with the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching.  In 1997 and in 2010, he was the recipient of the Journal of Food Distribution Research Outstanding Journal Article Award.  In 1999, he received recognition via the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Team Research at Texas A&M University.  In 1999, Dr. Capps was the recipient of the American Agricultural Economics Association Distinguished Teaching Award, and a co-recipient of the Applied Consumer Economics Award given by the American Council on Consumer Interests.  In 2000, he was the co-recipient of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review Outstanding Journal Article Award.  In 2001, Dr. Capps received the Frank Panyko Distinguished Service Award from the Food Distribution Research Society.  In 2002, Dr. Capps was bestowed the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Research at Texas A&M University.  In 2003, Dr. Capps was the recipient of The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching at the College level.  Further, he was named a Fish Camp namesake by students at Texas A&M University in 2004.  In 2006, Capps was appointed to the National Academies Committee on the Economic Development and Current Status of the Sheep Industry in the United States. In 2007, Dr. Capps also was appointed to the National Beef Demand Study Group. Dr. Capps was one of five co-recipients of the 2007 AAEA President’s Award. In February 2009, Dr. Capps received the SAEA Lifetime Achievement Award. In March 2011, Dr. Capps received the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Industry/Agency/University/Association Partnerships. In June 2011, Dr. Capps was recognized by the Western Agricultural Economics Association with the Distinguished Scholar Award. In August 2011, Dr. Capps was invited to join the Economics Advisory Council of the Alliance for Potato research and Education. In November 2011, Dr. Capps was bestowed the title of Regents Professor by the Board of Regents at Texas A&M University. In 2014, Dr. Capps was recognized as a Fellow of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.

Dr. Capps served on the Editorial Board of the American Agricultural Economics Association, was Past President of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, and was Past President of the Food Distribution Research Society. Currently, Dr. Capps is a Seminar Leader for the National Association of Business Economics (NABE), and he is a member of the Editorial Board for Business Economics, the professional publication of NABE. Capps also is a member of the Editorial Board for Agribusiness: An International Journal. Beginning in November 2008, he began a partnership with SAS Institute, Inc., conducting Business Knowledge Series seminars in applied econometrics.  He has served or is currently serving as a consultant to various firms, commodity boards, and law offices.

Dr. Capps was educated at Virginia Tech. He earned a B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1975, M.S. in Agricultural Economics in 1977, a second M.S. in Statistics in 1979, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1979.

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