Daniel A. Sumner is the director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center and the Frank H. Buck, Jr. Chair Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis. Sumner engages in teaching, research, and outreach on topics in agricultural economics and policy. He is the author of the Cato Trade Policy Analysis “Boxed In: Conflicts between U.S. Farm Policies and WTO Obligations.”
Sumner is the author of scores of professional articles, chapters, and reports and the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, including Agricultural Trade Policy: Letting Markets Work. He has also served as chair of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium. Sumner is a frequent speaker on agricultural economics and policy throughout the world.
Sumner was on the economics faculty of North Carolina State University for a decade. Before moving to the University of California in 1993, he spent several years on leave in federal government service. He was a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and deputy assistant secretary and assistant secretary for economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). At the USDA, he supervised the department’s economic and statistical work and provided policy advice to the secretary and other officials.
Sumner graduated with a BS in agricultural management from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He obtained his MS in economics from Michigan State University and has a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.