Source: UNIV OF CONNECTICUT submitted to NRP
FOOD MARKETING POLICY CENTER FOR RESEARCH
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SPECIAL GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0221642
Grant No.
2010-34178-20766
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2010-02552
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2010
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2013
Grant Year
2010
Program Code
[CJ]- Food Marketing Policy Center, CT
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF CONNECTICUT
438 WHITNEY RD EXTENSION UNIT 1133
STORRS,CT 06269
Performing Department
Agri & Resource Economics
Non Technical Summary
The role of advertising, product differentiation and pricing of food products is of deep interest to policymakers who seek to address the obesity epidemic and more generally marketing strategies and antitrust policy. This work will expand our knowledge by introducing dynamic models with more than one strategic choice variable. They will permit more general analysis of policy issues.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
60%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6035010301025%
6045010301025%
7125010301010%
6046230301030%
6075010301010%
Knowledge Area
603 - Market Economics; 712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins; 607 - Consumer Economics; 604 - Marketing and Distribution Practices;

Subject Of Investigation
6230 - Marketing systems and sectors thereof; 5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
This research analyzes several facets of oligopolistic conduct and market performance in the food system. It seeks to understand strategic pricing and advertising, the impact of advertising on kids, via possibly increased consumption of high fat and sweetened foods. It will also investigate the effects of MSG content on food addiction, including the role of advertising and pricing strategies. It will examine scanner data for salty snacks. No previous research have focused on salty snacks and MSG or the role of advertising in shaping addiction. It also will investigate the effects of children's presence on buying decisions in the supermarket. The covered products are candy, breakfast cereals and salty snacks. The literature on this is from the 1970's. This will be the first study that uses a large data set of actual purchases in supermarkets to analyze the issue. Another component focuses on supermarket accessibility with particular attention on the impact of area crime risk on supermarket access. The impact of crime has largely been ignored in previous research. With space-time nature of this research our analysis will be directed toward understanding the dynamics of supermarket access over a 10 year period. It will also examine the impact of Wal-Mart on prices. Finally we analyze changes in agribusiness organization over the past 20 years and the role of public policy in the process. All of this research will produce policy oriented analysis of agribusiness organization issues that will be disseminated in policy forums and journals.
Project Methods
Reduced form and structural models of pricing will evaluate policy options in antitrust and nutrition policy areas. Alternatively we will use link functions to allow for asymmetric response to market variables. New Bayesian and classical econometric estimations methods will be developed to estimate these complex link functions. Nielsen price and advertising data will be used. GIS analysis will be used to measure consumer's access for food.

Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Researchers in the area of food marketing and policy, and policy makers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has sponsored research assistantships on food marketing and sponsored graduate students to attend conferences, including the 2013 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. and the 2013 Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) annual meeting in Ithaca, NY. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results have been disseminated to peers via refereed journal publications and conference presentations. The Community Food Security report was disseminated as a glossy book to 2000 educators, policy makers, interested community members and other stakeholders. Additionally, the Zwick Center website and a special Community Food Security website provides global access to our publication lists and other results. We have also worked directly with state and federal policy makers in both group sessions and individual meetings to discuss our research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project involved reduced form and structural models of pricing to evaluate policy options in antitrust, food-related health and nutrition policy areas. Alternatively, link functions were used to allow for asymmetric response to market variables. New Bayesian and classical econometric estimations methods were developed to estimate these complex link functions. Nielsen price and advertising data was also used along with GIS analysisto measure consumer's access for food. The research analyzed several facets of oligopolistic conduct and market performance in the food system. It sought to increased our understanding of the impacts of strategic pricing and advertising; and the impact of advertising on kids, via possibly increased consumption of high fat and sweetened foods. It also investigated the effects of MSG content on food addiction, including the role of advertising and pricing strategies. The covered products are candy, breakfast cereals, carbonated soft drinks, and salty snacks. The literature previously available on these food products is from the 1970's. These studies used a large data set of actual purchases in supermarkets to analyze the issues. Another component focused on supermarket accessibility with particular attention on the impact of area crime risk on supermarket access. With the space-time nature of this research, our analysis was directed toward understanding the dynamics of supermarket access over a 10-year period. We also examined the impact of Wal-Mart on prices. We utilized consumer surveys to examine the effect of product quality, packaging, and local or organic options on purchasing behavior. Further research included the impact of using fast food taxes to reduce obesity, the impact of smoking regulations on health effects, and an examination of factors that determine the adoption of development incentives in the ethanol industry. The project also examined the performance of local food systems, including the relative levels of community food security across Connecticut towns and consumer perceptions of local v. organic foods. Applied research in this venue also included continued support of dairy payments in Connecticut and Massachusetts through estimation of the cost of production of milk—an activity suspended by the USDA in 2010 and necessary to run state public policies in New England. Health-related research involved the impacts of smoking policies and regulation on health outcomes, including smoking bans and the use of electronic cigarettes. Finally, we analyzed changes in agribusiness organization over the past 20 years and the role of public policy in the process. All of this research produced policy-oriented analysis of agribusiness organization issues that was disseminated in policy forums and journals.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Berning, J., R. Huang and A. Rabinowitz. (2013) An evaluation of government and industry proposed restrictions on television advertising of breakfast cereals to children. Journal of Consumer Policy. (DOI) 10.1007/s10603-013-9233-1
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Berning, J. and M.P. McCullough. (2013) Advertising Soft Drinks to Children: Are Voluntary Restrictions Effective? Agribusiness, 29:469-485. (DOI) 10.1002/agr.21343
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Campbell, B.L., S. Mhlanga, and I. Lesschaeve. Bad Quality and the Produce Industry: Consumer Reaction to Inferior Produce. Journal of Food Distribution Research.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Campbell, B.L., R.M. Nayga, Jr., and B. Lin. (2014) Analysis of Food Away from Home Expenditures by Meal Occasion: Are Transactional Variables and Prior Purchase Behavior Important? Journal of Foodservice Business Research 17(3):tba.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Campbell, B.L., S. Mhlanga, and I. Lesschaeve. (2013) Consumer Preference for Peach Attributes: Market Segmentation Analysis and Implications for New Marketing. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 42(3):518-541.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Campbell, B.L., S. Mhlanga, and I. Lesschaeve. (2013) Perception Versus Reality: Consumer Views of Organic and Local? Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 61(4):531-558.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Cleary, Rebecca and Rigoberto A. Lopez. (2013) Supermarket Responses to Wal-Mart Expansion: A Structural Approach. Empirical Economics. (DOI) 10.1007/s00181-013-0767-5.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Cotti, C. and N. Tefft. (2013) Fast Food, Obesity, and the Minimum Wage. Economics and Human Biology, March 2013, Vol. 11 (2), 134-147.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Cotti, C., S. Adams and D. Fuhrman. (2013) Smokeless tobacco use following smoking bans in bars. Southern Economic Journal, July 2013, Vol. 80 (1), 162-180.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Cotti, C., M. Skidmore and J. Alm. (2013) The Political Economy of State Government Subsidy Adoption: The Case of Ethanol. Economics and Politics, July 2013, Vol. 25 (2), 162-180.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Cotti, C., S. Adams and D. Fuhrman. (2013) The Short-Term Impact of Smoke-Free Workplace Laws on Fatal Heart Attacks. Applied Economics, April 2013, Vol. 45 (11): 1381-1393.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Huang, R. and J. Perloff. (2013) WIC Contracts Spillover Effects. Review of Industrial Organization, 44:49-71. (DOI) 10.1007/s11151-013-9397-5
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Huang, R. and M. Yang. (2013) Buy What Is Advertised on Television? Evidence from Bans on Child-Directed Food Advertising. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. 32(2): 207-222.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Liu, Y., R.A. Lopez and C. Zhu. (Forthcoming April 2014) The Impact of Alternative Policies to Decrease Soda Consumption. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Liu, Y., H. Rui and A. Whinston. (2013) Whose and What Chatter Matters? The Effect of Tweets on Movie Sales. Decision Support Systems. (DOI) 10.1016/j.dss.2012.12.022
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Lopez, R.A., Elena Lopez and C. Liron-Espana. (2013) Who Benefits from Industrial Concentration? Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade. DOI: 10.1007/s10842-013-0161-1.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Rabinowitz, A.N. and Y. Liu. (Forthcoming April 2014) The Impact of Regulatory Change on Retail Pricing: the New York State Milk Price Gouging Law. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Rabinowitz, A and J. Martin. (2012). 2012 Community Food Security in Connecticut: An Evaluation and Ranking of 169 Towns." Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Berning, J. (2014) The Effect of Breaskfast Cereal Coupons on the Nutritional Quality of Household Purchases. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. 17:A, 41-60


Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Nothing to report at this time. PARTICIPANTS: University of Connecticut Professors Rigoberto Lopez (PI), Ronald Cotterill, Joshua Berning, Rui Huang, Yizao Liu, and graduate students John Hogan, Adam Rabinowitz, Charles Rhodes, Elena Castellari, Chen Zhu, Xun Li, Huang Lu, and Hualu Zheng. Collaborators and contacts: University of Massachusetts Department of Resource Economics Professor Julie Caswell; New York University Stern School of Business Associate Professor Michael Cohen; Pennsylvania State University Agricultural and Resource Economics Associate Professor Alessandro Bonanno. TARGET AUDIENCES: Researchers in the area of food marketing and policy, and policy makers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Nothing to report at this time.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period


Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Nothing to report at this time. PARTICIPANTS: Professors Rigoberto Lopez, Ronald Cotterill, Rui Huang, and Joshua Berning. PhD students: Adam Rabinowitz, Charles Rhodes, Chen Zhu, Hualu Zheng, Huang Lu and Xun Li. TARGET AUDIENCES: Researchers in the area of food marketing and policy and policy makers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Nothing to report at this time.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period