Scholars@Duke
Norbert Lance Weston Wilson

Norbert Lance Weston Wilson

Professor of Food, Economics and Community
Divinity School
nwilson@div.duke.edu
304 Gray, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Front-of-pack labels and young consumers: An experimental investigation of nutrition and sustainability claims in Chile

Journal Article Food Quality and Preference · June 1, 2025 A better understanding of youth as autonomous consumers in the food market is needed to guide food and nutrition policies to achieve healthier and sustainable diets because they interact with the food environment to obtain, prepare, and consume food and be ... Full text Cite

Variations on the Thrifty Food Plan: Model diets that satisfy cost and nutrition constraints

Journal Article Food Policy · January 1, 2025 The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) supports Americans with low incomes in acquiring adequate and healthful diets. The maximum SNAP benefit is based on the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the lowest cost of four U.S. Department of Agriculture (US ... Full text Cite

Food waste, date labels, and risk preferences: An experimental exploration

Journal Article Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · January 1, 2025 This study provides theoretical and experimental evidence that consumers adjust their premeditated food waste by date labels and their risk and loss preferences. The “Use by” date label leads to more premeditated food waste than “Best by” for deli meat and ... Full text Cite

Whither convergence? Co-designing convergent research and wrestling with its emergent tensions

Journal Article Ecology and Society · November 1, 2024 Convergence has emerged as an important paradigm for conducting research that tackles grand societal challenges. It demands deep integration of multiple disciplines for a holistic understanding of the complexity of these challenges. In the last decade, mos ... Full text Cite

Have agricultural and applied economists lost sight of the land-grant mission? A textual analysis of Presidential Addresses and Invited Papers from 1919–2022

Journal Article Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · September 1, 2024 Agricultural and applied economists have maintained a public discourse at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meetings and subsequently published papers discussing the mission of land-grant institutions and the role of AAEA members in ... Full text Cite

Perceived Discrimination Among Food Pantry Clients in Massachusetts.

Journal Article Preventing chronic disease · September 2024 IntroductionFood insecurity is defined as inconsistent access to enough food to meet nutritional needs. Discrimination is associated with food insecurity and poor health, especially among racial and ethnic minoritized and sexual or gender minoriti ... Full text Cite

Virtual water trade: Does bilateral tariff matter?

Journal Article Ecological Economics · August 1, 2024 Virtual water trade (VWT) is the trade of water ‘embodied’ in a product. This paper explores the extent to which bilateral tariffs, World Trade Organization (WTO), and Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) reshape the trade of water across nations and alleviate ... Full text Cite

The longitudinal association between caregivers' perceived competence and autonomy and children's dietary consumption before and 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal Article Appetite · April 2024 The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful, potentially affecting caregivers' feeding choices. Caregivers play a role in shaping children's diets, yet few studies have explored how their competence and autonomy, defined by the Self-Determination Theory, impa ... Full text Cite

Moving policies toward racial and ethnic equality: The case of the supplemental nutrition assistance program*

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · March 1, 2024 We analyze the role played by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in alleviating or exacerbating inequality across racial and ethnic groups in food expenditures and in the resources needed to meet basic food needs (the “food resource gap”) ... Full text Cite

The distribution of competitive research grants from the National Institute for Food and Agriculture: A comparison of 1862 land grant universities, 1890 land grant universities, and other institutions

Journal Article Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · March 1, 2024 This article evaluates the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) competitive grant funding awarded to predominately White 1862 land grant institutions (LGUs), historically Black 1890 LGUs, and non-land grant ins ... Full text Cite

Are Caregivers' Feeding Competence and Autonomy Associated with Healthier Restaurant Food Purchases for Their Child at Fast Food or Counter Service Restaurants? A Cross-Sectional Study in a Diverse Sample of U.S. Caregivers.

Journal Article Nutrients · February 2024 This study examined the cross-sectional relationship between caregivers' perceived competence and autonomy (as defined by the Self-Determination Theory) and their fast food or counter service restaurant food purchases (side dishes, beverage, and dessert) f ... Full text Cite

Food labeling: Ingredient exemptions and product claims

Journal Article Agricultural and Resource Economics Review · January 1, 2024 New breeding methods have provided scientists with opportunities to improve traits in a wide range of crops, however, there remains resistance to foods that are produced from these crops, and mandates on labels used to describe such processes continue to b ... Full text Cite

Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with variations in daily routines in elementary schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile.

Journal Article Public health nutrition · October 2023 ObjectiveTo assess the association between child ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and home-school learning environment characteristics during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in schoolchildren with low- and middle income in Chile ... Full text Cite

The gamification of nutrition labels to encourage healthier food selection in online grocery shopping: A randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Appetite · September 2023 Food purchase choices, one of the main determinants of food consumption, is highly influenced by food environments. Given the surge in online grocery shopping because of the COVID-19 pandemic, interventions in digital environments present more than ever an ... Full text Cite

The creation of an online grocery store for experimental purposes: A pilot study

Journal Article Food Quality and Preference · July 1, 2023 More households shop for groceries online than ever in the United States. Thus, changes in online grocery store environments can affect the nutritional quality of food choices on a large scale. In response, we built a simulated online grocery store for exp ... Full text Cite

Use of Bland-Altman Analysis to Examine the Racial and Ethnic Representativeness of Study Populations in Community-Based Pediatric Health Research.

Journal Article JAMA network open · May 2023 ImportanceChildren from marginalized racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented in health research. To improve external validity and routinize race and ethnicity reporting, a specific and standardized methodology for quantifying representativen ... Full text Cite

Changes in children's and adolescents' dietary intake after the implementation of Chile's law of food labeling, advertising and sales in schools: a longitudinal study.

Journal Article The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · April 2023 BackgroundIn June 2016, a comprehensive food policy was implemented in Chile that included front-of-package warning labels on key nutrients of concern (total sugars, added saturated fats, sodium, and calories), child-directed food advertisement ba ... Full text Cite

Norbert Lance Weston Wilson

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · March 1, 2023 Full text Cite

A call for justice work in agricultural and applied economics

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · March 1, 2023 This presidential address calls the membership to explore ways of doing justice work in their research, teaching, extension, and outreach activities. By sharing my story and developing a content analysis of presidential addresses and invited papers publish ... Full text Cite

Is it more convenient to waste? Trade-offs between grocery shopping and waste behaviors

Journal Article Agricultural Economics (United Kingdom) · November 1, 2022 Efforts to reduce food loss and waste are being made across the supply chain, with households targeted as one of the most wasteful nodes in the chain. In this article, we consider the impact of changing one household food management behavior: grocery shopp ... Full text Cite

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Food Pantry Use and Barriers in Massachusetts during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Journal Article Nutrients · June 2022 This study sought to describe racial disparities in food insecurity, food pantry use, and barriers to and experiences with food pantries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 2928 adults in Massachusetts regarding food access in the y ... Full text Cite

Understanding Micro-pantries as an Emergency Food Source During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Conference Journal of nutrition education and behavior · April 2022 ObjectiveTo explore the role of micro-pantries in addressing food insecurity during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.DesignQualitative interviews with 20 micro-pantry users and 10 stakeholders during April and May, 2020. Full text Cite

Food Choice With Economic Scarcity and Time Abundance: A Qualitative Study.

Journal Article Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · February 2022 Consumers with low income in the United States have higher vulnerability to unhealthy diets compared with the general population. Although some literature speculates that scarcity is an explanation for this disparity, empirical evidence is lacking. We cond ... Full text Cite

What Food waste solutions do people support?

Journal Article Journal of Cleaner Production · January 1, 2022 In the U.S., the estimated food waste at the household level is 32% of purchased food, translating to $240 billion in economic losses. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency set the first-ever national food waste reduction g ... Full text Cite

Beyond price and income: Preferences and food values in peri-urban Viet Nam.

Journal Article Appetite · November 2021 Sub-optimal diets are one of the most important risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease. Developing a better understanding of the drivers of food choice, including the role of individual preferences, is important to address this issue. Th ... Full text Cite

Putting grocery food taxes on the table: Evidence for food security policy-makers

Journal Article Food Policy · May 1, 2021 In the United States, grocery tax policy varies at both state and county levels, with 16 states having grocery taxes in 2020. Several states are engaged in active debates about whether to remove or impose such taxes. Although the extant literature evaluate ... Full text Cite

Examining Food Purchase Behavior and Food Values During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal Article Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · March 1, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has altered conceptions of “normal” globally, including food purchasing and acquisition decisions. In this paper, we surveyed a panel of 1,370 U.S. households four times during the COVID-19 pandemic from mid-March to late April 2020. ... Full text Cite

Assessing the Role of Health Behaviors, Socioeconomic Status, and Cumulative Stress for Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Obesity.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · January 2020 ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the explanatory role of health behaviors, socioeconomic position (SEP), and psychosocial stressors on racial/ethnic obesity disparities in a multiethnic and multiracial sample of adults.MethodsUsing da ... Full text Cite

Perceived Benefits and Barriers to Free Summer Meal Participation Among Parents in New York City.

Journal Article Journal of nutrition education and behavior · September 2019 ObjectiveTo examine perceived benefits and barriers of summer meal participation among lower-income families who participate in school lunch programs during the year.DesignSemistructured phone interviews were conducted with parents of ele ... Full text Cite

An analysis of seafood trade duration: The case of ASEAN

Journal Article Marine Resource Economics · January 1, 2019 Trade duration analysis provides insights to the stability and length of trade. This study applies survival analysis to examine the trade duration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) seafood exports from 1996 to 2014. ASEAN seafood trade ... Full text Cite

What explains specialty coffee quality scores and prices: A case study from the cup of excellence program

Journal Article Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · August 1, 2018 This study investigates the effects of material and symbolic quality attributes on the Cup of Excellence specialty coffee quality scores and prices. The estimates from the quality score equations suggest that material attributes are important determinants, ... Full text Cite

The causal impact of HACCP on seafood imports in the U.S.: An application of difference-in-differences within the gravity model

Journal Article Food Policy · August 1, 2018 We offer a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to assess the causal effect of Hazard Analysis by Critical Control Points (HACCP), a food safety regulation, on U.S. seafood imports with a gravity model and event-specific changes. With a panel database ... Full text Cite

Seeing Is Not Believing: Perceptions of Date Labels over Food and Attributes

Journal Article Journal of Food Products Marketing · July 4, 2018 This study investigates consumers’ perceptions of date labels (“Best by” and “Use by”) between different food items (spaghetti sauce and deli meat) and across different attributes (nutrition, quality, safety, and taste). We collected data from experimental ... Full text Cite

Do consumers care how a genetically engineered food was created or who created it?

Journal Article Food Policy · July 1, 2018 This paper explores heterogeneity in consumer preferences for foods and policies that relate to different innovative plant breeding technologies. As a starting point in our analysis, we report results from almost four years of monthly surveys with U.S. con ... Full text Cite

The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups over the Great Recession in the United States

Journal Article AEA Papers and Proceedings · May 1, 2018 We document the differences in food insecurity incidence and severity by race/ethnicity and immigrant status over the Great Recession. We show that the disadvantaged groups with a higher incidence of food insecurity do not necessarily have a highe ... Full text Cite

Food pantry selection solutions: a randomized controlled trial in client-choice food pantries to nudge clients to targeted foods.

Journal Article Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · June 2017 BackgroundFood pantries and food banks are interested in cost-effective methods to encourage the selection of targeted foods without restricting choices. Thus, this study evaluates the effectiveness of nudges toward targeted foods.Methods ... Full text Cite

Implications of TTIP and TPP for GM/non-GM Coexistence

Conference Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization · January 1, 2017 The purpose of this special issue is to examine the interplay between TTIP/TPP and the regulation of sanitary and phytosanitary practices, with a special focus on the interplay between of the trade negotiations and GMO/Non-GMO coexistence in commodity and ... Full text Cite

Food waste: The role of date labels, package size, and product category

Journal Article Food Quality and Preference. · January 2017 The presence of food waste, and ways to reduce it, has generated significant debate among industry stakeholders, policy makers, and consumer groups around the world. Many have argued that the variety of date labels used by food manufacturers leads to confu ... Full text Cite

The Importance of Governance Levels in Alternative Food Networks: The Case of Red Meat Inspection Rules

Journal Article Rural Sociology · December 1, 2016 Focusing on U.S. red meat inspection regulations, in the context of alternative food networks (AFNs), we explore the implications of different levels of governmental governance for the number of red meat slaughter establishments in the United States. We ar ... Full text Cite

When the cupboards are bare: Nudging food pantry clients to healthier foods

Journal Article Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · January 1, 2016 Marketing researchers have a great opportunity to help people who live in food insecure households and the food pantries that serve them. Food pantries are private organizations that help fill the food gap for people who live in poverty. Client-choice food ... Full text Cite

A STOCHASTIC FRONTIER ANALYSIS TO EXAMINE RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PEANUTS

Journal Article Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · August 2015 AbstractPesticide applications are essential for peanut production to control insects, weeds, and other plant pathogens and for a profitable operation. We use a stochastic frontier analysis/primal system approach to test th ... Full text Cite

The economics of quality in the specialty coffee industry: Insights from the Cup of Excellence auction programs

Journal Article Agricultural Economics (United Kingdom) · November 1, 2014 This study estimates price determinants for specialty green coffee auctions using records from the 2004-2010 Cup of Excellence programs hosted by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. While some literature on coffee has focused on certifications and sustaina ... Full text Cite

Undiagnosed prediabetes among food insecure adults.

Journal Article American journal of health behavior · March 2014 ObjectivesTo identify sub-populations at risk for diabetes based on having prediabetes. Although food insecurity has been linked to diabetes, to our knowledge, no studies have examined whether food insecure individuals are more likely than fully f ... Full text Cite

Zero tolerance rules in food safety and quality

Journal Article Food Policy · January 1, 2014 In this introduction to the special section on zero tolerance rules, we identity examples from the known literature, which focus almost exclusively on deviant behavior. In contrast, we assembled papers that focus on zero tolerance as a characteristic of an ... Full text Cite

The Differential Effects of Food Safety Regulations on Animal Products Trade: The Case of Crustacean Product Trade

Journal Article Agribusiness (New York, N.Y.) · January 2014 Chloramphenicol is a broad‐spectrum antibiotic that was historically used as a veterinary drug for farm animal disease treatment purposes and it is currently used in human treatment; however, this is a banned substance. This paper investigates the impact o ... Full text Cite

Product standards and developing country agricultural exports: The case of the European Union

Journal Article Food Policy · October 1, 2013 This paper shows that voluntary product standards in EU food and agriculture markets can have significant trade effects. In particular for all countries and for goods that are raw or lightly processed, EU standards can often be trade-inhibiting. However, i ... Full text Cite

Helping consumers "know who grows" their coffee: The case of THRIVE farmers coffee

Journal Article International Food and Agribusiness Management Review · September 17, 2013 Michael Jones is the CEO of THRIVE Farmers Coffee. THRIVE Farmers International is a socially-oriented start-up with a new model for the coffee supply chain. The traditional supply chain for coffee is often criticized as being exploitative of farmers and t ... Cite

Governance of Global Value Chains in Response to Food Safety and Certification Standards: The Case of Shrimp from Vietnam

Journal Article World Development. · May 2013 We use global value chain (GVC) theory to understand governance of Vietnam’s shrimp farming industry. We describe this GVC as buyer-driven with important food safety standards imposed by governments of importing countries and new certification systems prom ... Full text Cite

Choosing the best model in the presence of zero trade: A fish product analysis

Journal Article Frontiers of Economics and Globalization · January 1, 2013 The purpose of the chapter is to test the hypothesis that food safety (chemical) standards act as barriers to international seafood imports. We use zero-accounting gravity models to test the hypothesis that food safety (chemical) standards act as barriers ... Full text Cite

Discussion: Causes of Agricultural and Food Price Inflation and Volatility

Journal Article Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · August 2012 This discussion is a review and critique of the three papers in the 2012 Southern Agricultural Economics Association invited paper session titled Causes of Agricultural and Food Price Inflation and Volatility. ... Full text Cite

A Cautionary Tale of Purity, Labeling and Product Literacy in the Gluten-Free Market

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Affairs · June 1, 2012 Like the market for organics, the gluten-free products market is expanding rapidly. Rapid expansion in the organic foods market led to changes in the regulatory structure, which in turn, made possible the transition of organics from something considered ex ... Full text Cite

Standard harmonization as chasing zero (tolerance limits): The impact of veterinary drug residue standards on crustacean imports in the EU, Japan, and North America

Conference American Journal of Agricultural Economics · January 1, 2012 Food safety standards in the seafood trade between developing country exporters and developed country importers have been a topic of much discussion in the trade literature. As an important source of foreign currency earnings and employment for many lower ... Full text Cite

How the cookie crumbles: A case study of Gluten-free cookies and random utility

Conference American Journal of Agricultural Economics · January 1, 2012 Individuals with CD must, at all times, avoid gluten and need accurate and clear information about the presence of it. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not established regulations on an appropriate label for gluten-free products, th ... Full text Cite

The Economics of Alternative Energy Sources and Globalization

Book · December 1, 2011 According to a national poll released by the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition, 74 percent of Americans believe that using domestically-produced renewable fuels should be increased. In addition, 87 percent maintain that the federal government should actively s ... Full text Cite

Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · October 2011 Full text Cite

Measuring retail service quality in farm supply cooperatives

Journal Article International Food and Agribusiness Management Review · May 9, 2011 Based on the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS), we develop a tool for mangers of local farm cooperative stores to assess which customer service groups matter to their customers. Principal component analysis (PCA) reveals three customer groups. The result ... Cite

A laboratory science approach to teaching in the agricultural economics curriculum

Journal Article Review of Agricultural Economics · May 18, 2009 We argue that economic laboratory experiments can facilitate active learning of theory in the agricultural economics curriculum by placing students in decision-making roles. Three types of experimental protocols are described, along with a discussion of th ... Full text Cite

Combining risk assessment and economics in managing a Sanitary-Phytosanitary risk

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · February 1, 2006 The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures provides guidelines for countries to protect domestic production from pests and diseases. The guidelines permit consideration of consumer welfare. We find an optimal set of SPS m ... Full text Cite

Capitalization of farm policy benefits and the rate of return to policy-created assets: Evidence from California dairy quota

Journal Article Review of Agricultural Economics · June 1, 2005 The rate of return to ownership of California dairy quota is about 27% per year-well above that of typical financial assets, but in line with other measured returns to agricultural quotas. Ownership of dairy quota does not contribute positively to total va ... Full text Cite

Cape Natural Tea Products and the U.S. market: Rooibos rebels ready to raid

Journal Article Review of Agricultural Economics · March 1, 2005 Cape Natural Tea Products was a young herbal products company based in South Africa. Rooibos tea was the strongest component of their product portfolio. In South Africa, rooibos was a commodity product and a direct competitor of coffee and tea. Antioxidant ... Full text Cite

Explaining variations in the price of dairy quota: Flow returns, liquidity, quota characteristics, and policy risk

Journal Article Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics · April 1, 2004 An econometric model based on the net present value model is used to examine factors that drive the variation of California dairy quota values over a 29-year period. The results suggest the price of quota is based on expected returns, variations in quota o ... Cite

“It's for Teaching, not Believing”: Comments on Teaching, Learning, and Problem Solving Through Economic Experiments

Journal Article Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · August 2003 This series of papers is an excellent opportunity to reacquaint agricultural economists in the Southern region with the exciting field of experimental economics and is indeed opportune in light of the recent awarding of the Nobel Prize in Economics ... Full text Cite

Do developing countries need a development box?

Journal Article EuroChoices · January 1, 2003 Developing country proposals for a Development Box focus on changes to WTO rules on agricultural trade that would enable them to address more effectively their objectives related to food security, poverty alleviation and economic development. Yet, there ar ... Full text Cite

A tale of two mergers: What we can learn from agricultural biotechnology event studies

Journal Article AgBioForum · December 1, 2002 This study employs event study analysis to examine two mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of publicly traded firms. The stock price effect of these combinations in the agricultural biotechnology industry indicates a market expectation of their profitability. T ... Cite

A static policy for a dynamic industry: The California young act of 1935.

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS · 1999 Cite

Policy risk: An empirical analysis of a market for a government-created asset.

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS · 1998 Cite

Time series analysis of a policy-created asset: The case of the California dairy quota.

Conference JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS · 1997 Cite

The dairy assessment refund program: What do differential milk taxes do and to whom?

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS · 1996 Cite