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

Major Professor: Nicole Mason-Wardell

Area of Specialization: International Trade, Agriculture in International Trade

Expected Graduatiion Date: May 2026

Personal Website: https://sroh722.github.io/

Publications on Google Scholar

Saera Oh is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics (AFRE) with a dual major in Economics at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on international trade, examining heterogeneous trade patterns and the effects of geopolitical events on both firm-level and aggregate trade, as well as the impacts of trade and trade policy on resource use. She is advised by Dr. Nicole Mason-Wardell (AFRE) and Dr. Oren Ziv (Economics). Her job market paper investigates whether multinational establishment respond differently to trade costs when exporting through related-party transactions—trade between affiliates within their multinational network—versus arm’s-length transactions with unaffiliated buyers. Using transaction-level trade data, she examines how distance and other trade costs shape these two export modes, shedding light on the role of organizational structure in mediating firms’ trade responses.

One of her dissertation chapters, Geopolitical risks and agricultural trade diversification in Southern Africa: Port-level evidence from the Russia-Ukraine war (with Sunghun Lim), analyzes port-level wheat imports following the Russia–Ukraine war. The study finds that South Africa diversified its sources of wheat imports, sustaining regional supplies but at the cost of greater volatility. This chapter has been published in the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute, where she gained practical experience with international commerce and trade policy. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University.