Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants

We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers’ purchase decisions, using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that average calories per transaction falls by 6%. The effect is almost entirely related to changes in consumers’ food choices—there is almost no change in purchases of beverage calories. There is no impact on Starbucks profit on average, and for the subset of stores located close to their competitor Dunkin Donuts, the effect of calorie posting is actually to increase Starbucks revenue. Survey evidence and analysis of commuters suggest the mechanism for the effect is a combination of learning and salience.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants

We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers’ purchase decisions, using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that average calories per transaction falls by 6%. The effect is almost entirely related to changes in consumers’ food choices—there is almost no change in purchases of beverage calories. There is no impact on Starbucks profit on average, and for the subset of stores located close to their competitor Dunkin Donuts, the effect of calorie posting is actually to increase Starbucks revenue. Survey evidence and analysis of commuters suggest the mechanism for the effect is a combination of learning and salience.

BYOB: How Bringing Your Own Shopping Bags Leads to Treating Yourself, and the Environment

As concerns about pollution and climate change have become more central in public discourse, shopping with reusable grocery bags has been strongly promoted as environmentally and socially conscious. In parallel, firms have joined policy makers in using a variety of initiatives to reduce the use of plastic bags. However, little is known about how these initiatives might alter consumers' in-store behavior. Using scanner panel data from a single California location of a major grocery chain, and completely controlling for consumer heterogeneity, we demonstrate that bringing your own bags simultaneously increases purchases of environmentally friendly as well as indulgent (hedonic) items. We use experimental methods to further demonstrate causality and to consider the effects of potential moderators. These findings have implications for decisions related to product pricing, placement and assortment, store layout, and the choice of strategies to increase the use of reusable bags

The state of the states: Data-driven analysis of the US Clean Power Plan

AbstractOn August 3, 2015 the US Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Clean Power Plan (CPP) which aims to reduce CO2emissions from the electricity generating sector by 32% of their 2005 levels by the year 2030. With the rule now finalized, in order to understand how the impact of this will unfold, we need to understand the factors that may influence how the electricity sector evolves given the targets that must now be met. To both identify and understand these relevant factors, we have completed an analysis of US electricity generation data for the period between 2001 and 2014. The result is a detailed fingerprint of the sector per state based on monthly data at the resolution of individual generators. This analysis demonstrates that several “building blocks” or decarbonization strategies encouraged by the CPP are already being utilized in the period analyzed across US states, resulting in CO2emissions that have already dropped 12% in the period studied.Furthermore, we show how the states exhibit considerable differences due to the complexity of their existing generation portfolios, geography, climate and demand patterns. We also examine to what extent the targets of the CPP may impact the most polluting part of their generation portfolios, and how this relates to developments with shale gas and state policies. We then conclude with an overview of which factors may either enable or hinder how the goals of the Clean Power Plan will be met

Thought for Food: Understanding Educational Disparities in Food Consumption

__Abstract__ \n \nHigher educated individuals are healthier and live longer than their lower educated peers. One reason is that lower educated individuals engage more in unhealthy behaviours including consumption of a poor diet, but it is not clear why they do so. In this paper we develop an economic theory of unhealthy food choice, and use a Discrete Choice Experiment to discriminate between the theoretical parameters. Differences in health knowledge appear to be responsible for the greatest part of the education disparity in diet. However, when faced with the most explicit health information regarding diet, lower educated individuals still state choices that imply a lower concern for negative health consequences. This is consistent with a theoretical prediction that part of the education differences across health behaviours is driven by the "marginal value of health" rising with education