Economics professor oversees interdisciplinary research group, publishes in Nature Scientific Reports

Auburn University interdisciplinary research group, overseen by Economics Professor Tannista Banerjee, collaborated with the Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, lab to conduct experimental economics and neurobehavioral analysis.

A recent study by Auburn University researchers investigated how fiscal interventions in the form of lower sales taxes and store discounts on healthy food items impact purchase of both healthy and unhealthy food items among low socioeconomic status parents. This research is the result of an interdisciplinary team and the first collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts and the Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, lab of Auburn University. In this interdisciplinary research team, Dr. Banerjee collaborated with Dr. Veena Chattaraman of Department of Consumer and Design Sciences, College of Human Sciences and Dr. Gopikrishna Deshpande of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AU MRI Research Center.

“Given the rising healthcare costs associated with obesity, governments have tried different policy interventions, but the efficacy of such fiscal policies is currently being debated,” said principal investigator Tannista Banerjee, associate professor in Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts. The research paper is accepted in Nature, Scientific Report. The full paper is available here https://rdcu.be/b7x3I.

“Our study is the first study to measure choice behavior in a semi-realistic shopping environment, employing neural correlates with both electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This paper is important as it solves a long-standing debate in experimental and health economics and has important health policy implication. So far, the brain processes underlying the effectiveness of public policy interventions employing sales taxes and discounts remains completely unexplored, and we investigated this,” Banerjee said.

Dr. Banerjee created a grocery store environment in the RFID lab to facilitate the shopping experiment for low income parents. Researchers collected behavioral and EEG data in the RFID lab while participants completed their grocery shopping. Later, participants were transported to the AU fMRI Research Center and with the assistance of Dr. Deshpande non-invasive neuroimaging brain activity data were collected while participants completed grocery shopping.

The Intramural Grant program of Auburn University, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Economics, College of Human Sciences, Department of Consumer and Design Sciences and the MRI research Center of Auburn University provided the financial support for this research. RFID lab provided material support.

Results show that under the lower tax and store discounts, participants bought more healthy food and less unhealthy food. The study demonstrates that both fiscal interventions improve dietary choices by significantly reducing the purchase of calories, sugar, added sugar, saturated fat, and sodium, while significantly increasing dietary fiber purchased. These results provide preliminary evidence that fiscal interventions tested in this study have the potential to promote healthy food choices among low socioeconomic status households and reduce obesity. This study shows important future policy implication as lowering tax and giving store discounts (on healthy food) to encourage parents to choose healthier food for their family.