NADIA STRELETSKAYA

Research Areas:

Behavioral and experimental economics;

Consumer behavior and preferences, labeling, nutrition, marketing

For the most up-to-date list of publications plese see my Google Scholar page.

 

 

Publications

• Clean label: Why this ingredient but not that one?

  Sara Maruyama, Nadia A Streletskaya, Juyun Lim Food Quality and Preference 87, 2021

  Consumer demand for natural and clean label foods continues to grow. This study aims to measure consumers’ perceived naturalness of food ingredients and further to investigate factors affecting their acceptability. Yogurt was chosen as the focal food of interest. A total of 20 common yogurt ingredients within the categories of sugars, stabilizers/thickening agents, preservatives, and coloring agents were selected. An online survey was administered to 526 yogurt consumers in the United States to evaluate the degrees of naturalness, familiarity, and acceptability of the selected ingredients. The degrees of acceptability were rated again when information regarding the functionalities and sources was given. Socio-demographic information was also collected. Results showed that the perceived naturalness of the coloring agents and preservatives varied substantially within each category. In contrast, the selected sugars were perceived as more natural, while stabilizers/thickening agents were perceived as less natural. These findings suggest that food manufacturers may focus on stabilizers/thickening agents in clean label reformulations. Results also showed that providing information regarding ingredient source, but not functionality, improved acceptability for some ingredients. This finding carries implications in that food manufacturers may consider including source information on their ingredient lists, and that regulatory agencies may need to set further guidelines for providing information on food labels. Additionally, some socio-demographic factors, such as consumers’ age and their knowledge on food ingredients, seem to be linked to the perceived naturalness and acceptability of ingredients. Understanding the link between socio-demographic characteristics and the acceptability of specific ingredients may help food manufacturers to market their products to specific demographic groups.

• Urban consumer preferences for nutrient fortified snacks in Zambia

  Nadia A. Streletskaya, Samuel Bell, Grace Kuo and Emily Heneghan Kasoma. Agribusiness: an International journal, 35(4): 693-706, 2020

  This paper uses a choice experiment with 661 respondents in two large cities in Zambia to evaluate urban consumers’ preferences for nutrient‐fortified wheat cookies. Our results indicate that both nutrient fortification and marketing messaging tied to taste, health and energy are important attributes for discretionary food selection among urban consumers in Zambia. Using a latent class model, we identify two types of consumers: price sensitive consumers strongly interested in nutrient fortification, who respond to different types of marketing messages and are unlikely to select the opt out option; and a smaller (24%) proportion of consumers who would rather not buy cookies at all, but exhibit strong demand for nutrient fortification, and are to some extent influenced by marketing messages that highlight the taste characteristics of the product. This suggests that while demand for fortified discretionary items is high among a significant proportion of the population promoting such foods on their health or energy characteristics might be counterproductive to some consumers, potentially due to health fortification stigma previously identified in the field. Taste messaging is identified as the most effective marketing appeal across our participants.

• Agricultural adoption and behavioral economics: Bridging the gap

  Nadia A Streletskaya, Samuel D Bell, Maik Kecinski, Tongzhe Li, Simanti Banerjee, Leah H Palm‐Forster, David Pannell Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 42(1): 54-66, 2020

  This paper provides a selective overview of the linkages and complementary topics in behavioral economics and agricultural adoption literatures. The goal of the paper is to identify likely directions for future research at the intersection of behavioral economics and agricultural adoption. This research agenda has potential for providing valuable insight for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders in agriculture and beyond.

• The Random Quantity Mechanism: Laboratory and Field Tests of a Novel Cost-Revealing Procurement Mechanism

  Samuel Bell, Nadia A. Streletskaya Environmental and resource economics, 73(3): 899-921, 2019

  Information on private costs can improve the efficiency of programs that provide payment for environmental services in contexts involving information asymmetries and heterogeneous private costs. Using data from laboratory and field experiments, this paper presents and evaluates a novel private cost revealing mechanism, termed the random quantity mechanism (RQM), that can advance research in conservation contracting, payments for environmental services, and other similar settings. We examine the RQM’s performance in a laboratory setting using induced costs and report results obtained from the first field implementation of this mechanism, with smallholder farmers in Zambia. We show that the RQM is incentive-compatible, that participant decision-making maximizes expected payoffs, and that the mechanism provides non-parametric estimates of private costs. The paper contributes to economic field studies by introducing a new incentive-compatible mechanism that elicits individuals’ minimum willingness to accept across intensive margins, enabling researchers to estimate the supply of a service or commodity, and provides for exogenous variation in contract terms, which can aid in separately identifying the impacts of incentives and of participants’ willingness to accept on contract outcomes.

• Absence Labels: How does Information about Production Practices Impact Consumer Demand?

  Nadia A. Streletskaya, Jura Liaukonyte and Harry M. Kaiser. PLOS ONE, 14(6): e0217934, 2019

  Absence labels promote the absence of a particular ingredient or production practice. Consumers usually perceive organic labels as an umbrella absence label for a variety of ingredients and production practices. Such organic labels often use similar language but are based on different certification requirements. For example, both organic wine and wine made with organic grapes are available to U.S. consumers, but little is known about consumer preferences for such labeled products when information about the certification standards is available. Moreover, while absence labels, which advertise the absence of certain attributes or practices, are prevalent on the market, little is known about how information on conventional production practices impacts consumer behavior. Using an artefactual experiment with 128 adult non-student participants, we investigate consumer demand for conventional wine, organic wine, and wine made with organic grapes when information about production standards is provided to participants with and without details regarding conventional winemaking practices. We find that while both organic labels carry a significant and very similar willingness-to-pay (WTP) premium, information about certification standards and conventional wine making practices can reduce WTP for all wines. Providing information about the two organic certification standards reduces consumer WTP for both absence labeled and conventional wine categories. This effect largely disappears for organic wine, but not wine made with organic grapes, when information about conventional wine-making practices is also provided.

• The Random Quantity Mechanism: Laboratory and Field Tests of a Novel Cost-Revealing Procurement Mechanism

  Samuel D. Bell and Nadia A. Streletskaya. Environmental and Resource Economics,2019

  Information on private costs can improve the efficiency of programs that provide payment for environmental services in contexts involving information asymmetries and heterogeneous private costs. Using data from laboratory and field experiments, this paper presents and evaluates a novel private cost revealing mechanism, termed the random quantity mechanism (RQM), that can advance research in conservation contracting, payments for environmental services, and other similar settings. We examine the RQM’s performance in a laboratory setting using induced costs and report results obtained from the first field implementation of this mechanism, with smallholder farmers in Zambia. We show that the RQM is incentive-compatible, that participant decision-making maximizes expected payoffs, and that the mechanism provides non-parametric estimates of private costs. The paper contributes to economic field studies by introducing a new incentive-compatible mechanism that elicits individuals’ minimum willingness to accept across intensive margins, enabling researchers to estimate the supply of a service or commodity, and provides for exogenous variation in contract terms, which can aid in separately identifying the impacts of incentives and of participants’ willingness to accept on contract outcomes.

• Does taste sensitivity matter? The effect of coffee sensory tasting information and taste sensitivity on consumer preferences

  Jie Li, Nadia A.Streletskaya, Miguel I. Gómez. Food Quality and Preference 71(Jan): 447-4516, 2019

  Product sensory information, an external cue, could greatly influence consumer enjoyment of hedonic products like coffee. The question is what type of sensory information, subjective (e.g., aroma, flavor and body) or objective (e.g., origin, varieties and production practices), has a higher impact on consumer product experience accounting for heterogeneous taste sensitivity. We examine this question using a between-subject experiment where participants were either given subjective, objective or no sensory information of a specialty coffee. Participants were classified as either supertasters or other tasters using the 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) paper strip. The results indicate that, compared to objective sensory information and no information, subjective sensory information results in a higher taste rating and a higher preference level for the coffee. More importantly, subjective information positively influences PROP supertasters’ purchase likelihood for coffee, without necessarily affecting their bitterness perception of the coffee tasted.

• Personalized pricing and price fairness

  Timothy J. Richards, Jura Liaukonyte, Nadia A. Streletskaya, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 44: 138–153, 2016

  Mobile web technology enables discriminatory, or personalized, pricing for many more consumer good categories than has traditionally been the case. Setting prices according to individual valuations, however, generates adverse consumer reaction unless consumers are invited to participate in the price-formation process. Consumer perceptions of price fairness are key to the sustainability of any discriminatory pricing regime. Perceptions of price fairness, in turn, are hypothesized to be shaped by “self-interested inequity aversion” in which prices tend to be regarded as unfair, and purchase probabilities fall, if others are perceived to pay a lower price, while prices tend to be regarded as more fair, and consumers more likely to purchase, if inequity is in the buyers favor. Our experimental data also shows that the implications of inequity aversion for sellers can be at least partially reversed if consumers are allowed to participate in the price-formation process by negotiating the price they pay. The primary implication of our findings is that, in order to be viable, any system of discriminatory pricing for consumer goods should invite consumers to have a stake in the price they pay. Such participatory pricing may provide one way out of the current trap of Hi–Lo, or promotional, pricing that neither retailers nor manufacturers regard as sustainable.

• Menu-labeling formats and their impact on dietary quality

  Nadia A. Streletskaya, Wansopin Amatyakul, Pimbucha Rusmevichientong, Harry M. Kaiser and Jura Liaukonyte. Agribusiness: an International Journal, 32(2): 175-188, 2016

  The impact of three menu-labeling formats on changes in dietary quality of an away-from-home meal is measured. The analysis is based on a lunchtime experiment using 232 student participants, with a control group and three treatments: (1) a calorie-content posting, (2) a complete nutrition-facts panel, and (3) health-related claims. We find that the calorie content posting lead to the highest calorie reduction, but it was also the only treatment associated with a significant reduction in the fiber content of the meal. The complete nutrition-facts panel treatment resulted in most sizable decreases in problematic nutrient content such as empty calories and calories from fat and added sugar. The health-related claims treatment led to a reduction in carbohydrates and calories from fat. The nutrient density of selected meals remained mostly unchanged across all treatments, but the empty calories proportion of total calories was reduced in the nutrition-facts and health related claims treatments, with the latter also leading to some reduction in added sugar density.

• The long term impact of positive and negative information on food demand

  Jura Liaukonyte, Nadia A. Streletskaya and Harry M. Kaiser. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, 63(4): 539-562, 2015.

  We examine whether the effects of information about product labels change over time. The analysis is based on 110 adult (non-student) subjects who participated in a two-stage economic experiment taking place three months apart. In the first stage of the experiment, willingness-to-pay (WTP) was elicited for items that were stated to contain bovine growth hormones, genetically modified ingredients, ingredients that have been exposed to antibiotics, and ingredients that were irradiated. Depending on the treatment, each first stage auction was supplemented with positive or negative information about each of the labels. The second stage experiments re-elicited WTP for the same group of subjects and the same items accompanied with the original labels, but this time without any secondary information. Our results suggest that the adverse impact of negative information does not persist over time; whereas in the case of positive information, changes in WTP from the initial to the follow-up auctions are not statistically significant. This study enhances our understanding of how consumers retain information over a longer time period and suggests that previous studies that measure labeling impacts on WTP using isolated, single-shot experiments may overstate the longer-term effects of labels and negative information.

• Noisy information signals and endogenous preferences for labeled attributes

  Jura Liaukonyte, Nadia A. Streletskaya and Harry M. Kaiser. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 40(2): 179-202, 2015

  Consumer preferences for labeled products are often assumed to be exogenous to the presence of labels. However, the label itself (and not the information on the label) can be interpreted as a noisy warning signal. We measure the impact of “contains” labels and additional information about the labeled ingredients, treating preferences for labeled characteristics as endogenous. We find that for organic-food shoppers, the “contains” label absent additional information serves as a noisy warning signal leading them to overestimate the riskiness of consuming the product. Providing additional information mitigates the large negative signaling effect of the label.

• Taxes, subsidies, and advertising efficacy in changing eating behavior: an experimental study

  Nadia A. Streletskaya, Pimbucha Rusmevichientong, Wansopin Amatyakul and Harry M. Kaiser. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 36(1): 146-174, 2014

  Using a lab experiment with 258 adult non-student participants, we examined whether unhealthy foods taxes, healthy foods subsidies, anti-obesity advertising, and healthy foods advertising have an impact on changing consumers’ choices of lunch items and the nutrient content of their choices for a selected meal. A difference-in-difference regression model was used to determine the efficacy of the various policy treatments. The results indicate that the unhealthy foods tax, healthy foods advertising, and unhealthy foods tax combined with anti-obesity advertising significantly reduced the content of some nutrients of concern, such as calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, and cholesterol in meal selections. We also find that when combined with healthy foods subsidy, the healthy foods advertising has very little effect on nutrient consumption; the anti-obesity advertising on its own, however, is not efficient at changing dietary behavior. We discuss the policy implications of our findings and venues for future research.

   

• Response to Comment on taxes, subsidies, and advertising efficacy in changing eating behavior: an experimental study

  Nadia A. Streletskaya and Harry M. Kaiser. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 36(4): 722-726, 2014

  Experimental design is a crucial component to economics lab studies, and its structure defines the research agenda and the questions that can be answered through the data obtained in the experiment. Designing an effective economics laboratory experiment involves not only navigating the basic principles of experimental design, such as orthogonality and incentive compatibility, but also taking into account human behavior, heuristics, and learning. Although we commend the comment (Fischer forthcoming) for not simply taking the research conclusions at their face value and for delvingdeeper into the intricacies of the experimental design used in “Taxes, Subsidies, and Advertising Efficacy in Changing Eating Behavior: An Experimental Study” (Streletskaya et al. 2014), we feel it is necessary to correct the false assumptions the comment depends upon and use the data from the original experiment to examine some of the comment's claims. It is our hope that such a discussion of experimental design will highlight the necessity to holistically approach the evaluation of experimental studies in economics, necessarily looking at both the data and the design structure to judge research results.

• The impact of food advertisements on changing eating behaviors: an experimental study

  Pimbucha Rusmevichientong, Nadia A. Streletskaya, Wansopin Amatyakul and Harry M. Kaiser. Food Policy, 44: 59-67, 2014.

  This research examines how three types of food advertising (healthy food, unhealthy food, and anti-obesity) impact consumers’ purchases of lunch items. The analysis is based on an economic experiment conducted with 186 adult non-undergraduate student subjects, each of which were randomly placed into either the control group or one of four treatments: (1) healthy food advertising, (2) anti-obesity advertising, (3) unhealthy food advertising, and (4) mixed (all three food) advertising. The results indicate that healthy, anti-obesity, and mixed food advertising reduced intakes of total calories, fat, sodium, and carbohydrates. Similarly, anti-obesity, healthy, and mixed food advertising results in increasing the probability of selecting more healthy items and fewer unhealthy items from a menu. Healthy food advertising has a stronger impact than anti-obesity or mixed food advertising.

• Consumer response to “Contains” and “Free of” labeling: evidence from lab experiments

  Jura Liaukonyte, Nadia A. Streletskaya, Harry M. Kaiser, and Bradley J. Rickard. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 35(3): 476- 501, 2013.

  Using a lab experiment with 351 adult non-student subjects, we investigate the impact of labels and secondary information on willingness to pay (WTP) for foods that use various ingredients and processes that have been the subject of food policy discussions. We find a distinct asymmetry of WTP sensitivity between “Contains X” and “Free of X” labels with negatively-framed secondary information. The “Free of X” label has an impact only when secondary information is provided, and the negative impact of “Contains X” is mitigated by secondary information. We also consider how the results of our study can inform the ongoing debate about mandatory food labeling regulations in the United States: if mandatory labeling is adopted, providing additional information about what the product contains would significantly lessen the negative impact on demand.

Working Papers and Work in Progress

• Social Presence and Shopping Behavior: Evidence from Video Data.

  Nadia A. Streletskaya

• Wine tasting and choice overload

  Nadeeka Weerasekara, Nadia A. Streletskaya, Jie Li

• Do you remember what you like? Memory and tastings in WTP and consumer preference studies.

  Nadia A. Streletskaya, Jie Li, Samuel D. Bell

• Using reactance in behavioral nudges: is the current status quo taking your choice away?

  Nadia A. Streletskaya

Teaching at Oregon State:

• Microeconomic Teory II (AEC 513)

  Fall 2019, 2020

  Emphasizes principles for microeconomic theory at the master’s level. Builds upon the foundations covered in AEC 512, and extends the theory and principles to competitive market partial and general equilibrium and welfare analysis, imperfect competition, and market failures. Includes treatment of uncertainty and risk and game theory approaches. Provides introduction to time discounting and behavioral economics approaches. Primary emphasis is on understanding microeconomic theory and the underlying assumptions, and how they apply to real world settings.

• Agricultural and food marketing (AEC 221)

  Winter 2017, Spring: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

  Currently capped at 60 students. The course covers the traditional agricultural marketing topics, including market structure and organization, marketing chains and marketing orders, as well as the more consumer oriented side of food marketing, including labeling and a wide array of food policies affecting consumer decision making.

• Behavioral and experimental economics (AEC 699)

  Winter: 2018, 2019; Spring: 2021

  This course provides introduction to the concepts of behavioral economics and a primer on experimental methods. Experimental and behavioral economics are exciting fields in the broader economics discipline, with experimental economics focusing on controlled identification, illustration and study of various socio-economics principles and market mechanisms, and behavioral economics research tackling situations that are inconsistent with the standard rational behavior model on both individual and market level. Concepts and tools presented in the class can be used in a variety of settings, including provision of environmental services, health and social policy design, marketing and product design.

Past teaching:

• Intermediate applied economics: producers and consumers (AEC 311)

  Winter 2018, Winter 2019

  The course provides an en examination of the theories of consumer behavior and demand, production cost, the firm, supply, and competitive market structure. Part of the aplpied microeconomics sequence, followed by AEC 313.

• Behavioral economics section, Advanced topics in environmental and resource economics (AEC 448/548)

  Fall 2016, 3-week section of the AEC 448/548

  The section introduces and discusses some basic concepts of behavioral economics dealing with judgement biases and heuristics, time effects, and risk preferences. The student complete a short research proposal, with a preferable focus on environmental and resource economics, that uses, tests or studies the concepts introduced in the section.

• Price analysis (AEM 4150)

  Head TA, Fall 2014, 2015

  In addition to supervising three (2015) to eight (2014) undergraduate TAs, I also held recitation sections once a week, office hours twice a week, organized exam review sessions and wrote some of the weekly problem sets.

• Managerial economics I/II (AEM 2600/01)

  Head TA, Fall 2013, Spring 2014

  I have supervised the undergraduate TAs, wrote the problem sets, and held office hours every week.

• Analysis of agricultural markets (AEM 6400)

  Guest Lecturer, Fall 2013, 2014, 2015

  I have given guest lectures for the past three years to the graduent student class, going over my current research projects, and discussing working papers in the context of the course.

• Business world (AEM 1200)

  Individual section TA, Summer 2013, 2014

  I held daily sections with groups of 20 students, supervising case-study centered discussions and covering concepts from the lectures, graded homeworks and oversaw the final course projects.

Announcements

• AEELab up and running

• Applied Experimental Economics Lab is dedicated to enhancing our understanding of how people and firms think about economic decisions, deal with questions of inequality and fairness, make consumption choices, react to taxes, subsidies, among some of the research areas.
• AEELab is located in the Applied Economics Department, 316 Ballard Extension Hall, OSU Corvallis Campus. Anyone (including students, OSU staff, and people not affiliated with OSU) can register to become a participant at the AEELab and receive information about studies currently taking place here.