“Facts Up Front” nutrition labels are a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling system that presents key nutrient information on the front of packaged food and beverage products in an easy-to-read format. The authors conduct a large-scale empirical study to examine the effect of adoption of FOP labeling on products’ nutritional quality. The authors assemble a unique data set on packaged food products in the United States across 44 categories over 16 years. By using a difference-in-differences estimator, the authors find that FOP adoption in a product category leads to an improvement in the nutritional quality of other products in that category. This competitive response is stronger for premium brands and brands with narrower product line breadth as well as for categories involving unhealthy products and those that are more competitive in nature. The authors offer evidence regarding the role of nutrition information salience as the underlying mechanism; they also perform supplementary analyses to rule out potential self-selection issues and conduct a battery of robustness checks and falsification tests. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for public policy makers, consumers, manufacturers, and food retailers.
AgrawalAjayCataliniChristianGoldfarbAviLuoHong (2018), “Slack Time and Innovation,” Organization Science, 29 (6), 1056−73.
2.
AndréQuentinChandonPierreHawsKelly (2019), “Healthy Through Presence or Absence, Nature or Science? A Framework for Understanding Front-of-Package Food Claims,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 38 (2), 172−91.
3.
AngristJoshua D.PischkeJörn-Steffen (2009), Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
4.
BalcombeKelvinFraserIainFalcoSalvatore Di (2010), “Traffic Lights and Food Choice: A Choice Experiment Examining the Relationship Between Nutritional Food Labels and Price,” Food Policy, 35 (3), 211–20.
5.
BauerHans H.HeinrichDanielSchäferDaniela B. (2013), “The Effects of Organic Labels on Global, Local, and Private Brands: More Hype than Substance?” Journal of Business Research, 66 (8), 1035–43.
6.
BayusBarry L.PutsisWilliam P.Jr. (1999), “Product Proliferation: An Empirical Analysis of Product Line Determinants and Market Outcomes,” Marketing Science, 18 (2), 137–53.
7.
BonfrerAndréChintaguntaPradeep K.RobertsJohn H.CorkindaleDavid (2020), “Assessing the Sales Impact of Plain Packaging Regulation for Cigarettes: Evidence from Australia,” Marketing Science, 9 (1), 234–52.
8.
BordaloPedroGennaioliNicolaShleiferAndrei (2013), “Salience and Consumer Choice,” Journal of Political Economy, 121 (5), 803–43.
9.
BorensteinSeverinRoseNancy L. (1994), “Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry,” Journal of Political Economy, 102 (4), 653−83.
10.
CadarioRomainChandonPierre (2020), “Which Healthy Eating Nudges Work Best? A Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments,” Marketing Science, 39 (3), 465–86.
ChandraAmbarishTappataMariano (2011), “Consumer Search and Dynamic Price Dispersion: An Application to Gasoline Markets,” RAND Journal of Economics, 42 (4), 681−704.
13.
DrichoutisAndreas C.LazaridisPanagiotisNaygaRodolfo M.Jr. (2005), “Nutrition Knowledge and Consumer Use of Nutritional Food Labels,” European Review of Agricultural Economics, 32 (1), 93–118.
14.
DrichoutisAndreas C.LazaridisPanagiotisNaygaRodolfo M.Jr. (2009), “Would Consumers Value Food-Away-from-Home Products with Nutritional Labels?” Agribusiness, 25 (4), 550–75.
15.
DuboisPierreAlbuquerquePauloAllaisOlivierBonnetCélineBertailPatriceCombrisPierre, et al. (2020), “Effects of Front-of-Pack Labels on the Nutritional Quality of Supermarket Food Purchases: Evidence from a Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science(published online April 24), DOI:10.1007/s11747-020-00723-5.
16.
EmrichTeri E.CohenJoanna E.LouWendy Y.L’AbbéMary R. (2013), “Food Products Qualifying for and Carrying Front-of-Pack Symbols: A Cross-Sectional Study Examining a Manufacturer Led and a Non-Profit Organization Led Program,” BMC Public Health, 13 (846), 1–9.
GriffithRachelO’ConnellMartinSmithKateStroudRebekah (2018), “Children’s Exposure to TV Advertising of Food and Drink,” IFS Briefing Note BN238, The Institute for Fiscal Studies.
HwangMinhaParkSungho (2016), “The Impact of Walmart Supercenter Conversion on Consumer Shopping Behavior,” Management Science, 62 (3), 817−28.
25.
IkonenIinaSotgiuFrancescaAydinliAylinVerleghPeeter W.J. (2020), “Consumer Effects of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling: An Interdisciplinary Meta-Analysis,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48 (3), 360–83.
26.
JainYogendra KumarBhandareSantosh Kumar (2014), “Min Max Normalization Based Data Perturbation Method for Privacy Protection,” International Journal of Computer & Communication Technology, 3 (4), 45–50.
27.
JanakiramanRamkumarLimJoon HoRishikaRishika (2018), “The Effect of a Data Breach Announcement on Customer Behavior: Evidence from a Multichannel Retailer,” Journal of Marketing, 82 (2), 85−105.
28.
JuliaChantalFézeuLéopold K.DucrotPaulineMéjeanCarolinePéneauSandrineTouvierMathilde, et al. (2015), “The Nutrient Profile of Foods Consumed Using the British Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling System Is Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in the SU.VI.MAX Cohort,” Journal of Nutrition, 145 (10), 2355–61.
29.
KellyBridgetJewellJo (2018), “What is the Evidence on the Policy Specifications, Development Processes and Effectiveness of Existing Front-of-Pack Food Labelling Policies in the WHO European Region?” Health Evidence Network (HEN) Synthesis Report 61, Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
30.
KieselKristinMcCluskeyJill J.Villas-BoasSofia B. (2011), “Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices,” Annual Review of Resource Economics, 3 (1), 141−58.
31.
KoopmansLambert H.OwenDonald B.RosenblattJudah I. (1964), “Confidence Intervals for the Coefficient of Variation for the Normal and Log Normal Distributions,” Biometrika, 51 (1/2), 25–32.
32.
LameyLienDeleersnyderBarbaraSteenkampJan-Benedict E.M.DekimpeMarnik G. (2018), “New Product Success in the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry: A Shopper Marketing Approach,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35 (3), 432−52.
33.
MeyerBruce D. (1995), “Natural and Quasi-Experiments in Economics,” Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 13 (2), 151−61.
34.
MoormanChristine (1996), “A Quasi Experiment to Assess the Consumer and Informational Determinants of Nutrition Information Processing Activities: The Case of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 15 (1), 28−44.
35.
MoormanChristine (1998), “Market-Level Effects of Information: Competitive Responses and Consumer Dynamics,” Journal of Marketing Research, 35 (1), 82−98.
36.
MoormanChristineFerraroRosellinaHuberJoel (2012), “Unintended Nutrition Consequences: Firm Responses to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act,” Marketing Science, 31 (5), 717−37.
37.
NikolovaHristina DzhoglevaInmanJ. Jeffrey (2015), “Healthy Choice: The Effect of Simplified Point-of-Sale Nutritional Information on Consumer Food Choice Behavior,” Journal of Marketing Research, 52 (6), 817−35.
38.
PiresTiago (2018), “Measuring the Effects of Search Costs on Equilibrium Prices and Profits,” International Journal of Industrial Organization, 60, 179−205.
39.
PuriManjuRochollJörgSteffenSascha (2011), “Global Retail Lending in the Aftermath of the US Financial Crisis: Distinguishing between Supply and Demand Effects,” Journal of Financial Economics, 100 (3), 556–78.
RishikaRishikaKumarAshishJanakiramanRamkumarBezawadaRam (2013), “The Impact of Customers’ Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation,” Information Systems Research, 24 (1), 108–27.
42.
RoeBrianLevyAlan S.DerbyBrenda M. (1999), “The Impact of Health Claims on Consumer Search and Product Evaluation Outcomes: Results from FDA Experimental Data,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 18 (1), 89−105.
43.
RussoJ. EdwardStaelinRichardNolanCatherine A.RussellGary J.MetcalfBarbara L. (1986), “Nutrition Information in the Supermarket,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (1), 48−70.
44.
SalopSteven (1976), “Information and Monopolistic Competition,” American Economic Review, 66 (2), 240−45.
45.
SalopStevenStiglitzJoseph (1977), “Bargains and Ripoffs: A Model of Monopolistically Competitive Price Dispersion,” Review of Economic Studies, 44 (3), 493−510.
46.
ScarboroughPeterBoxerAnnaRaynerMikeStockleyLynn (2007), “Testing Nutrient Profile Models Using Data from a Survey of Nutrition Professionals,” Public Health Nutrition, 10 (4), 337−45.
StiglerGeorge J. (1961), “The Economics of Information,” Journal of Political Economy, 69 (3), 213–25.
51.
TuckerCatherineZhangJuanjuanZhuTing (2013), “Days on Market and Home Sales,” RAND Journal of Economics, 44 (2), 337–60.
52.
WangEmilyRojasChristianBaunerChristoph (2015), “Evolution of Nutritional Quality in the US: Evidence from the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry,” Economics Letters, 133, 105–08.
53.
WuFangSwaitJoffreChenYuxin (2019), “Feature-Based Attributes and the Roles of Consumers’ Perception Bias and Inference in Choice,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (2), 325–40.
54.
WyattSharon B.WintersKaren P.DubbertPatricia M. (2006), “Overweight and Obesity: Prevalence, Consequences, and Causes of a Growing Public Health Problem,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 331 (4), 166–74.
55.
ZhaoYing (2006), “Price Dispersion in the Grocery Market,” Journal of Business, 79 (3), 1175–92.
56.
ZhouXiao-HuaObuchowskiNancy A.McClishDonna K. (2002), Statistical Methods in Diagnostic Medicine. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
57.
ZhuChenLopezRigoberto A.LiuXiaoou (2016), “Information Cost and Consumer Choices of Healthy Foods,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 98 (1), 41–53.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
