Distribution Dynamics of Dietary Energy Supply in the World

This paper investigates the law of motion for the cross-section distribution of dietary energy supply (DES) in the world. This has been pursued using the distribution approach and a panel of 152 countries for the period 1961-2001. According to the empirical results, persistence in caloric intakes dominates in the short-run. With time, however, upwards mobility gains momentum and the world is moving towards a long-run distribution, which is strongly skewed to the left. The estimated expected first passage times from extreme under-supply to higher intake levels are consistent with speculations that most of the developing countries will attain the 3000 kcal per person per day level by the year 2030.caloric intakes, mobility, World, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C10, D12,

A model of nutrition information search with an application to food labels

Due to the dramatic rise of several diet-related chronic diseases, nutrition information search behaviours have received significant interest from both the scientific and non-scientific literature. No other known paper in economics, however, has examined from a theoretical perspective the acquisition of nutrition information as a health enhancing activity. We modify the standard health capital model (Grossman, 1972) to allow the time spent on nutrition information search to be considered within the context of a time allocation decision. We then collected extensive primary data based on the theoretical model and used these to test the model.nutrition information, food labels, health production

Can nutritional label use influence body weight outcomes?

Nutritional labeling has been of much interest to policy makers and health advocates due to rising obesity trends. So can nutritional label use really help reduce body weight outcomes? This study evaluates the impact of nutritional label use on body weight using the propensity score matching technique. We conducted a series of tests related to variable choice of the propensity score specification, quality of matching indicators, robustness checks, and sensitivity to unobserved heterogeneity using Rosenbaum bounds to validate our propensity score exercise. Our results generally suggest that nutritional label use does not affect body mass index. Implications of our findings are discussed.Nutritional Labels, Body Mass Index, Propensity Score Matching, sensitivity analysis

Food involvement and food purchasing behaviour

This paper investigates the factors affecting product class involvement for food. Factors affecting specific aspects of involvement are also explored. The aim is to determine the factors that affect involvement with food and sketch the profile of consumers more likely to be involved or not involved with food. Building on the literature a conceptual model is developed and empirically tested using survey data collected from supermarkets in Athens. Data were analyzed using probit and ordered probit analysis and marginal effects were calculated which show how much the level of involvement or importance is affected when a variable is changed. Results show that younger consumers, those with higher education and income that engage in nutritional label use behaviour and do not prepare food for their household are more likely to have low involvement with food. Less distinctive characteristics are apparent for the highly involved consumers. Different consumer profiles are also associated with different aspects of food involvement based on importance attached to price, ease of preparation, nutrition, taste, and brand name.product class involvement, food involvement, consumer behaviour, food shopping, attribute importance, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Heteroskedasticity, the single crossing property and ordered response models

Heteroskedasticity in ordered response models has not garnered enough attention in the literature. Econometric software packages do not handle this problem satisfactorily either. We provide formulas to calculate heteroskedasticity corrected marginal effects and discrete changes using an approach that deals with single crossing property, a very restrictive assumption of ordered response models.

A consistent econometric test for bid interdependence in repeated second-price auctions with posted prices

In repeated second-price experimental auctions, the winning bid is normally posted after each round. The posting of these winning prices after each round can result in bids submitted in later rounds to be interdependent with posted prices from earlier rounds. Several approaches in the past have tried to scrutinize their experimental data for value interdependence by regressing bids on lagged market prices or lagged bids and ignoring the inherent endogeneity problem. This paper introduces a formal test for bid interdependence in repeated second-price auctions with posted prices using a dynamic panel model. We then apply this test to formally check the presence of bid interdependence in three datasets used in previous studies.experimental auctions; bid interdependence; dynamic panel estimator; second-price auction

Body Weight Outcomes and Food Expenditures Among Older Europeans: A simultaneous equation approach

We analyze the inter-relationships between body weight outcomes and food expenditures among older Europeans using a simultaneous equation model. Several statistical tests were conducted to assess endogeneity of selected variables, the exogeneity, relevance, and validity of instruments used, and the identification of the model. Our results generally suggest, contrary to normative views, that food-away-from-home expenditure is negatively related to body mass index (BMI). BMI is negatively related to the percentage of food spent away from home.Body Mass Index, food expenditures, simultaneous equations, Agricultural and Food Policy,

When a risky prospect is valued more than its best possible outcome

In this paper, we document a violation of normative and descriptive models of decision making under risk. In contrast to uncertainty effects found by Gneezy, List and Wu (2006), some subjects in our experiments valued certain lotteries more than the best possible outcome. We show that the likelihood of observing this effect is positively related to the probability of winning the lottery and negatively related to the value of the maximum outcome. We also demonstrate that this effect can be partially attributed to subjects’ competitiveness and level of comprehension of the lottery mechanism; the competitiveness effects far outweighing comprehension effects.lottery, risk, competitiveness, Vickrey auctions