Suchergebnisse

This dissertation consists of three applied essays on environmental and resource economics. The essays study consumer and local government responses to exogenous shocks: randomized environmental messages, variation in international mineral prices and a widely publicized food-borne disease outbreak. In particular, this dissertation focuses in three broad areas: (i) investigating whether environmental messages can increase energy efficient technology adoption by poor populations and understanding the characteristics of the individuals who respond to these messages, (ii) testing whether increases in municipal income translate into additional environmental investments and policies in developing countries and, (iii) studying the role of food borne disease outbreaks on consumer purchases and preferences.

AbstractProduct traceability is advocated as a way to target non‐compliant products in recalls and protect the sales of compliant products. Using a large scanner‐level dataset from a national grocery chain and a difference‐in‐differences approach, we test whether consumers in California reduced egg purchases after three consecutive egg recalls during the 2010 Salmonella outbreak. In a setting where contaminated eggs could be traced to the box level, leaving no contaminated eggs in stores, we find a 7% to 9% reduction in egg sales following the recalls. The effect lasted at least three months. We find no evidence of overall substitution toward "greener" types of eggs, such as organic eggs. Finally, although the national grocery chain had contaminated eggs only in Northern California, we find reductions in egg sales in Southern Californian stores as well. Our results show that, even with traceability, consumers' responses to recalls can negatively affect the sales of compliant products.