Professor Zheng’s research has focused on the connection of food and health, with applications to meat alternatives/hemp, non-GMO and bio-engineered foods, big data (machine learning), and food safety certifications. He has examined (1) private and public food safety standards from firm's perspective (e.g., producers choosing certifiers in the food safety certification [such as the British Retail Consortium standard, BRC standard] and organic certification markets), (2) government program/policy impact (e.g., grocery food sales tax impact on food insecurity, eating habit, and health), and (3) food, tobacco, and beverage demand using big data including Nielsen and Circana (IRI) scanner data.

He has published papers in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Health Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Food Policy, Economic Inquiry, Southern Economic Journal, and Economics Letters, among others. His research has been/was funded by the USDA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA CFSAN) and Center for Tobacco Products (FDA CTP). He directed the development of the FDA Food Regulation and Enforcement Policy Trade Impact Model and the FDA Tobacco Category Demand Model. His paper on sales tax received the 2013 Best Economics Paper Award from the food safety and nutrition section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He is an adjunct professor at the Dyson School School of Applied Economics of Cornell University, University of Vermont, Agri-food Research and Technology Center of Aragón in Spain, and Zhejiang University.

Contact me for assistance with:

Food marketing, food safety certification, consumer demand

University/Committee Involvement

University of Kentucky contact person for Nielsen data access
Department graduate committee

Recent Publications

1. Wang L., and Y. Zheng. 2024. “Why are Grocery Foods Taxed in the United States? Theory and Spatial Evidence from Multilevel Government Interactions”, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 104, 103959.

2. Hu, L., Y. Zheng, T. Woods, Y. Kusunose, and S. Buck. 2023. “The Market for Private Food Safety Certifications: Conceptual Framework, Review, and Future Research Directions”, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 45(1): 197–220.

3. Zheng, Y., A. Gracia, and L. Hu. 2023. “Predicting Foodborne Disease Outbreaks with Food Safety Certifications: Econometric and Machine Learning Analyses”, Journal of Food Production, 86(9), 100136. 

4. Bar, T., and Y. Zheng. 2019. “Choosing Certifiers: Evidence from the British Retail Consortium Food Safety Standard”, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 101(1): 74–88.

5. Zheng, Y., C. Zhen, D. Dench, J. Nonnemaker. 2017. “US Tobacco Demand in a System Framework.” Health Economics, 26(8): 1067-86.

Google Scholar citations | RePEc