Encouraging Healthy Nutrition Purchases in an Online Grocery Setting using Experimental Economics

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Encouraging Healthy Nutrition Purchases in an Online Grocery Setting using Experimental Economics

Low quality diets and their relationship to obesity and poor health outcomes are of increasing concern in Singapore, and local policy-makers are looking to identify strategies aimed at encouraging healthier food consumption in efforts to combat obesity and improve public health. This proposal aims to support these efforts by designing a study to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions aimed to encourage higher quality diets, with the broader goal of informing policy on reducing rates of obesity and enhancing the public health profile of Singapore. To this end, this study proposes to develop an online grocery store and enroll participants to make their typical grocery purchases through this store. Using the information gathered from the participants’ purchasing behavior, this proposal will apply experimental economic methods to test the extent to which food purchasing behavior can be positively influenced through a series of nutrition information and/or incentive-based interventions. The findings from this research can be used by policymakers in efforts to improve the value of nutrition information to discourage unhealthy food consumption, and by insurers and others looking to design value-based programs that reward participant’s for healthier food purchases.

Last updated on January 10, 2018