FOOD ECONOMICS, BEHAVIOR, AND HEALTH

This project will use two types of state-of-art, economic analyses to investigate consumers food decisions, their link towards individual health and dietary quality, and the associated policy implication. One type of analysis uses micro-level market data to estimate structural models derived from consumers' utility maximization problems or reduced-form models that examine how an important factor under investigation exogenously varies while controlling for other factors. A second type records and analyzes outcomes from carefully designed economic experiments conducted either in lab, field, or survey settings. Both types of analyses will allow us to investigate the impact of both micro-level factors (such as changing product attributes) and macro-level factors (such as the changing food retailing environment) on consumers' food choices and health. Food and health policies are highly relevant for both types of analysis and policy analysis will be a common theme throughout all phases of the project.