1) Demand Analysis and Consumer
Behaviour: Market surveys, primary data collection,
multivariate statistical analysis, habits and addiction in consumer
behaviour, consumer response to information, shocks and
advertising, structural change, integration of economics and
cognitive sciences in consumer research
2) Economic and Policy of Obesity and
Nutrition: economic policies to tackle the adverse effects
of obesity, modelling the nutrition-health relationship and its
economic impacts, child obesity and the role of
marketing
3) Applied Econometrics: structural time
series systems (time-varying parameter models), Cointegrated Vector
Error Correction Models, testing for structural breaks, discrete
choice and censored models, event study analysis
4) Economic policy: monitoring and
evaluation of economic policies, impact of food safety regulations,
cohesion and rural development
DEMAND ANALYSIS AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR.
A) Survey planning with a focus on food consumption behaviour,
questionnaires based on economic psychology teories (e.g. Theory of
Planned Behaviour, Prospect Theory, Food Psychographics,
Lifestyles) which allow to estimate behavioural models integrating
economic determinants (prices, income, information) with other
psychological factors (attitudes, social norms, etc.);
B) specification and estimation of consumer behaviour models with a
focus on the role of information, risk perception, consumer trust
and health issues;
C) demand models with stochastic parameters aimed at evaluating the
impact of information release, with a special focus on
media-enhanced food scares (e.g. mad cow crisis, bird flu, etc.);
D) consumer behaviour models for habits and addiction (e.g. alcohol
and tobacco demand), intertemporal preference models, adaptive and
rational expectations, rational addiction
ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF OBESITY AND NUTRITION: nutrition policy
analysis in different world areas (developed and developing
countries), with a special focus on the obesity epidemics, the
relationship between obesity and non-communicable diseases, and
economic impact assessment. Specification ande estimation of micro-
and macro-economic models for the statistical evaluation of the
relationship among nutrition, obesity, health and public
expenditure. Evaluation of nutrition policies (nutrient taxes and
subsidies, information policy, labels).
APPLIED ECONOMETRICS: Structural time series models with a range of
applications (household consumption, tourism, energy).
Specification and estimation of the Almost Ideal Demand System with
stochastic coefficients. Cointegration and Vector Error Correction
Models with a focus on demand systems and the integration of these
methods with the structural time series model. Ordered probit and
logit models. Tobit models with individual threshold. Event Study
Analysis for financial data. Testing for multiple structural
breaks.
ECONOMIC POLICY: Economic impact assessment of the introduction of
food safety standards (MoniQA project). Models for evaluating
agricultural policies, detection of homogeneous rural development
areas through multivariate statistics. Taxation and consumer
response.
