University Park, Pennsylvania – Chensen of the Georgia Athletic Association of Agriculture and Health Economics at the University of Georgia, and Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia, will give a speech. The talk is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, April 16th at 157 Hosler Building in Pennsylvania State Park.
In his speech, Zhen discusses the findings from the public food price database for food items in retail food. To explain the utility of this public price dataset, Zhen estimates the effect of sugar-subscribed drink consumption on body weight status and healthcare spending. Using data from the Center for Disease Control’s behavioral risk factor monitoring system, he links individual weight status and the frequency of intake of sugar-subscribed drinks to the cost of local sugar-subscribed drinks. Healthcare costs of sugary drink consumption are estimated by national data sources that measure the contribution of sugar-processed drink consumption to obesity-related medical expenses in the Medical Expense Panel Survey, and how Americans use and pay for medical, health insurance, and pocket spending.
Zhen’s research focuses on exploring the economic causes and effects of food behaviors with a major emphasis on nutrition and health-related behaviors. He develops practical econometric methods for estimating flexible demand systems using data from home and retail scanners. His recent studies include sugary drink tax, panel price index, shelf nutrition labels, and snap household food selection.
Zen earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree in applied economics from Montana State University, and a doctorate in economics from North Carolina State University.
The Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (Eeepi) initiative was established in 2011 with the goal of promoting the research of policy-related economics at the boundary between economic science and research in natural or engineered systems. The Eeepi initiative focuses primarily on the coalition of energy systems and environmental management and the development of quantitative tools to address the decision challenges in these areas. Please see more details on Eupi.
