Incentives to Eat Healthy: Evidence from a Grocery Store Field Experiment

38 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2015

See all articles by John A. List

John A. List

University of Chicago - Department of Economics

Anya Samek

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Rady School of Management; Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR)

Terri Zhu

Louis' Groceries

Date Written: September 1, 2015

Abstract

We use a field experiment to investigate the effect of incentives on food purchase decisions at a grocery store. We recruit over 200 participants and track their purchases for a period of 6 months, permitting us a glimpse of more than 3,500 individual shopping trips. We randomize participants to one of several treatments, in which we incentivize fresh fruit and vegetable purchases, provide tips for fruit and vegetable preparation, or both. We report several key insights. First, our informational content treatment has little effect. Second, we find an important price effect: modest pecuniary incentives more than double the proportion of dollars spent on produce in the grocery store. Third, we find an interesting pattern of consumption after the experiment ends: even when incentives are removed, the treatment group has higher fruit and vegetable purchases compared to the control group. These long-term results are in stark contrast to either a standard price model or a behavioral model of 'crowd out.' Rather, our results are consonant with a habit formation model. This opens up the distinct possibility that short term incentives can be used as a key instrument to combat obesity.

Keywords: field experiment, incentives, education, food choice, grocery, habit formation

JEL Classification: I12, C93

Suggested Citation

List, John A. and Samek, Anya and Zhu, Terri, Incentives to Eat Healthy: Evidence from a Grocery Store Field Experiment (September 1, 2015). CESR-Schaeffer Working Paper No. 2015-025, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2664818 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2664818

John A. List

University of Chicago - Department of Economics ( email )

1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

Anya Samek (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Rady School of Management ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive #0553
Rady School of Management
La Jolla, CA 92093-0553
United States

HOME PAGE: http://anyasamek.com

Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) ( email )

635 Downey Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-3332
United States

Terri Zhu

Louis' Groceries ( email )

United States

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