Agricultural economics applies the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock. Specific areas of study in agricultural economics include:

• Community and rural development
• Food safety and nutrition
• International trade
• Natural resource and environmental economics
• Production economics
• Risk and uncertainty
• Consumer behavior and household economics
• Analysis of markets and competition
• Agribusiness economics and management

Agricultural economics tends to be more micro-oriented than economics in general. Many undergraduate Agricultural Economics degrees given by US land-grant universities tend to be more like a traditional business degree rather than a traditional economics degree. At the graduate level, many agricultural economics programs focus on a wide variety of applied microeconomic topics.