I am an applied Micro Economist specialising in the economics of food, agriculture, environment and health. I specialise in survey design and the analysis of associated data - much of this work involves Discrete Choice Experiments and Best Worst Scaling methods. 

I am an adjunct Professor at Adelaide University and the University of Western Australia.

I served as an Expert Member of the Food Standards Agency's Social Science Advisory Committee between 2018 and 2024. I have been an External Examiner at Imperial College London, York University and SOAS.

Specific research interests:

Keywords: Environmental, Food & Health Economics; Choice Experiments; Best Worst Scaling;  Preference Elicitation; Plagiarism; Contract Cheating; 

My research is mainly in the Economics of the Environment, Food, Health and Education - much of it concerning preferences, values and trade-offs.

A great deal of recent work involves Discrete Choice Experiments and Best Worst Scaling. This has led to research projects using those methods to elicit preferences in diverse contexts such as plagiarism, risk perception, employment and the training choices of junior doctors.

My research has been funded by inter alia ESRC, MRC, NERC, BBSRC, NIHR, FSA, Defra, DfID, CSIRO. Much of it is interdisciplinary leading to papers in journals such as World Development, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Infection, and Risk Analysis.

My research has been published in a wide range of Economics journals including: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Environmental & Resource Economics, European Review of Agricultural Economics,  Ecological Economics  and Managerial & Decision Economics. 

Google Scholar

ResearcherID summary

 Current Research Projects:  

• FOODSENS Funded by the Food Standards Autralia ands New Zealand the project investigates the economic burden generated  by food allergies, food intolerances and Coeliac disease.
• Economics of Foodborne Illness.  Working with Resources for the Future (RFF) and USDA Economic Research Service investigating the economic value of the disease burden of foodborne disease in the USA.

Recent Research Projects:  

• Economics of Food Allergies and Food Sensitivities.  Funded by the Food Standards Agency the project investigates the economic value of the burden caused by Food Allergies, Sensitivities and Coeliac disease.
• Enigma Sources, Seasonality, Transmission and Control: Campylobacter and human behaviour in a changing environment.   A 5 year project on the Campylobacter pathogen funded by MRC/NERC/ESRC/BBSRC.
• GP Recruitment  An NIHR project investigating junior doctor's training choices and the factors behind under-recruitment to General Practice.
• Economics of Foodborne Illness (EFBI) Funded by the Food Standards Agency the project investigated the economic value of the disease burden of foodborne disease using QALY and WTP measures.

Ph.D. Supervision:

 I welcome enquiries from students wishing to develop PhD research on:

• applied  microeconomics;
• environmental economics;
• food production, food safety and the economics of foodborne disease;
• choice experiments - design & analysis & use of CE; their use to investigate economic and environmental issues;
• survey design and eliciting preferences;
• (the economics of) plagiarism and contract cheating.

If you have an interest in an such issues, or indeed something else concerning my research areas (which are quite varied) then I am happy to discuss these at an early stage.

Ph.D. Students

Current:

• Jinghan Chen (hypothetical bias in the valuation of private & public goods)

Recent:

• Camilla Knudsen (environmental valuation)
• Keila Meginnis (strategic bias in choice experiments)
• Caroline Vass 2016 (risk perceptions and economic valuation in healthcare)
• Andrea Murray 2014 (political economy of 'ethical' label proliferation)
• Paul Balcombe 2014 (social, economic & technical barriers to microgeneration adoption)
• Caroline Millman 2012 (food risk perceptions and practice)
• Seda Erdem 2010; food safety economics