His research focuses on the topics of food policy, political will, and rural development. He coauthered the textbook Food Policy for Developing Countries and is writing a book on the changing structure of meatpacking in developed and developing countries. He is part of an international, multi-disciplinary project studying the political economy of the global food price crisis. He has also written about hunger in Africa and Haiti, the environmental Kuznets curve, and food system ethics. He has taught courses in development economics, macroeconomics, game theory, and religion. Watson is a National Merit Scholar and a member of the American Economic Association, the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and American Public Policy and Management.