Dissertation
Essays on Development Economics and Consumer Demand: Evidence from Primary Data
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004370
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124661
Abstract
My dissertation consists of three essays on Development Economics and consumer demand for food products produced using innovative technologies. I collected primary data separately for the three chapters. My first chapter is on gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility in India and the underlying factors that affect such gender gaps. My second chapter is on consumer demand for a ready-to-eat meal food produced using an innovative food processing technology called Microwave Assisted Thermal Sterilization. My third chapter centers on consumers acceptance table grapes produced using an innovative breeding technology called gene editing. My first chapter establishes the existence of a gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility in India. Creating a unique father-child pairs matched dataset, I examine whether a son or a daughter is more likely to attain higher education than the father. Results from the latent class analysis suggests that the male-bias gender norms do not predict a gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility.
My second chapter uses data collected via an online survey to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay for the attributes of organic, clean label, and processed with a new food technology in a ready meal. My findings suggest that consumers who frequently purchase ready meals prefer a clean label over the organic certification, highlighting the importance of technological innovations and the need to present consumers with complete information on the new food technologies to mitigate potential neophobias due to unfamiliarity.
My third chapter estimates consumers’ willingness to pay for specific product (quality) and process (agronomic) attributes of table grapes, including taste, texture, external appearance, expected number of chemical applications, and the breeding technology used to develop the plant. Considering varietal traits, on average our survey respondents were willing to pay the highest price premiums for specific offers of improvements in table grape taste and texture, followed by external appearance and expected number of chemical applications. Considering breeding methods, on average our respondents were willing to pay a small premium for table grapes developed using conventional breeding rather than gene editing.
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Details
- Title
- Essays on Development Economics and Consumer Demand
- Creators
- Azhar Uddin
- Contributors
- Shanthi Manian (Advisor)R. Karina Gallardo (Committee Member)Jill J McCluskey (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 116
- Identifiers
- 99900883134401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation