Essays In Food And Health Economics

This dissertation consists of three independent and mostly interrelated studies that focus on consumer behavior in the areas of food and healthcare. In my first paper, my coauthors and I analyze consumers' willingness to pay and preferences for reduced food waste and increased shelf life in relation to refrigerated ready-to-eat meals. We find evidence to suggest that consumers are willing to pay for reduced food waste, but willingness to pay for increased shelf life depends on the group being considered. The groups can be separated into health-conscious and on-the-go shoppers where only the on-the-go shopper is willing to pay a premium for a product with an increased shelf life. My second paper elicits consumers' willingness to pay for a clean label and a novel microwave technology. The results suggest that consumers are willing to pay for a clean label and the magnitude varies by group. There are also groups who are willing to pay a premium for the novel technology, but it is not homogeneous among groups. In my third paper, my coauthor and I present a theoretical model of health care consumption in emergency departments and in outpatient settings as functions of patients' time, market price of health care, and health insurance coverage. Applying our theory to data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), we examine the relationship between health care utilization and health insurance coverage. From the interaction between the price effect and the network effect we find that an insured individual in a rural area has a lower likelihood of a checkup within the last year compared to an insured individual in an urban area.