This research assesses the effects of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards in international trade by introducing a new concept, bridge to cross (BTC), with product standards. The BTC in this paper is the regulatory gap between the exporting and importing countries with regard to any...

Biofortification, breeding staple food crops to be dense sources of essential micronutrients, is fast emerging as a strategy to fight micronutrient malnutrition. Large scale biofortification investments are being made in several developing countries, but until recently little rigorous evidence...

The competition between the U.S. and the E.U. agricultural subsidies during 1980s decreased the world prices in agricultural and food markets but caused an extensive distortion in the international trade of agricultural and food products. Under these circumstances, World Trade Organization (WTO)...

Using a unique dataset of maize samples and consumer interviews form Eastern Kenya, we find that the presence of the fungal contaminant aflatoxin is negatively associated with the use of maize flour for food. While food remains the most common use of maize regardless of the presence of the...

In 2003, China launched a new health insurance system - the New Cooperative Medicine Scheme (NCMS) in its rural areas, where more than 87 percent of China’ rural residents were not covered by any health insurance programs. By the end of 2009, the NCMS had expanded to cover 95 percent of...

We evaluate the effect of differences in child care and food environments on obesity among children in the age group of four to six years. To address non-random selection of children into different child care settings, we first predict market price of child care and market wages, and then...

Using data from a experimental supportive intervention to India's malaria control program, we study the impact of local capacity on mosquito net usage and fever care seeking patterns. The intervention was conducted simultaneously by three NGOs in two endemic districts in the state of Orissa, and...

We develop a new framework to analyze the effect of calorie posting on overconsumption of calories in a fixed-price context (e.g., fixed-price buffets). The framework demonstrates that a desire to get `a good deal’ (transaction utility) and loss aversion can induce asymmetry between two...

Sugar-sweetened beverages have emerged as one of the primary targets in the battle against obesity. Understanding the differential impacts of soda taxes for different obesity categories (e.g., moderate vs. morbidly obese) is critical to assess their full potential to not only reduce obesity...