Chapter 1: The Effect of Online Shopping on the Nutritional Content of Grocery Purchases: This chapter utilizes novel household panel data to analyze the effect of online grocery shopping on the healthiness of grocery purchases. In order to obtain a causal estimate of the impact of online grocery shopping on the nutritional content of grocery purchases, I utilize variation in the timing that an online shopping service was introduced as a source of exogenous variation in the decision to shop online. Local average treatment effects indicate that online shopping induces a 3.8, 5.9, 5.7 and 7.4 percent increase in the average budget shares for dairy, fruit, meats and vegetables, respectively. This reallocation of funds comes at the expense of drinks, oils and snacks/sweets with estimates indicating a 5.2, 4.1 and 13.6 percent decrease in the average budget shares, respectively. I also analyze the nutrient densities of grocery purchases and find a 4.2, 5.0, 5.8 and a 5.8 percent decrease in the average amount of calories, carbohydrates, fats and sugars contained in an ounce of food purchased, respectively. These insights into consumer purchasing behavior can be utilized to inform food policy aimed at improving the nutritional quality of food purchases.Chapter 2: The Effect of Online Shopping on Grocery Demand: This chapter analyzes the effect of shopping for groceries online on grocery demand. Utilizing variation in the timing that an online shopping service was introduced as a source of exogenous variation in the decision to shop online, I estimate a structural model of demand that allows the parameters of demand to vary with purchasing environments. I find that fifty-four percent of the estimated demand parameters are significantly different in months in which a household engages in online shopping. Comparisons of in-store and online price elasticities indicate that households are generally less price sensitive when shopping online. Specifically, I find that own-price (cross-price) elasticities are 1.2 (1.4) times larger in-store than they are online, on average. These insights into consumer purchasing behavior can be utilized to inform optimal web design and online pricing strategies.Chapter 3: What are SNAP Benefits Used to Purchase? Evidence from a Supermarket Retail Panel: This chapter analyzes what households utilize their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamp) benefits to purchase and relates these purchasing patterns to existing research that has explored the impact of SNAP on food spending, non-food spending and health outcomes. I utilize an event study approach that compares the purchasing patterns of a household immediately prior to SNAP adoption to the purchasing patterns of the same household immediately following SNAP adoption. I find that SNAP adoption almost exclusively increases spending on SNAP eligible items with the product categories of meat, oil and prepared foods experiencing the biggest growth in food expenditure. I also find that SNAP adoption is correlated with increased spending over baby products, while spending over alcohol and tobacco products exhibits almost no change.
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