Background

Area of Expertise

Food economics, food marketing, Consumer research, Food Policy, applied econometrics

Education

PhD, Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, USA

MSc in Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, USA

MSc in Agro-food Marketing, Agronomic Mediterranean Institute of Saragossa, International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (IAMZ-CIHEAM), Spain

BSc in Animal Science, University of Évora, Portugal

Affiliations

Behavioural Economics Northeast Centre (BENC)

Centro de Estudos Transdisciplinares para o Desenvolvimento (CETRAD), Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) Portugal. Since 2010.

Leadership roles

Degree Program Director for the Food Business Management & Marketing Bachelor’s degree at School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University (since 2017).

Academic lead for the Cornell-Newcastle Universities Undergraduate Student  Exchange Program (since 2017)

Chair of Mentoring Committee, Agricultural and Applied Economists Association, USA (since 2017)

Degree Program Director for the Agri-Business Management Bachelor’s degree at School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University (2014-2017)

Academic Service

Editorial board member for the Journal of Food Products Markerting, Agriculture and Resource Economics Review and Economia Agro-alimentare.

Managing Editor of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review (2013-2017)

Co-edited the Special Issue Changing Food Consumption Behaviours published at Psychology and Marketing (vol 28, issue 3).

Professional Experience

2017 - School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, UK: Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness Management 

2014 - 2017 School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University, UK: Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness Management

2006 - 2014 Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK: Lecturer in Food Economics and Marketing

2006 - 2010 Honorary Lecturer in Food Economics and Marketing at the Imperial College London, Wye Campus, UK:

2000 - 2002 Escola Superior Agrária de Santarém (Agricultural College of Santarém), Department of Economics, Portugal:

1998 Novadelta - Delta Cafés: Assistant Marketing Manager:

1994 - 1998 Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, General Division for Rural Development

Research

My main research interest and expertise is in understanding how firms and consumers use information to make their decisions. My main interest is understanding how  information may impact  consumer, managers and public agents behaviour. His research program is in applied food economics and marketing. Currently I am focusing on three main lines of inquiry: 1) can information conveyed through mobile technlogies and social media help consumers adopt healthier or more sustainable food choices? 2) How can we ensure compliance with credence quality standards and sustain reputation and trust  in food quality attributes? 3) When can we rely private-public partnerships to deliver food policy goals? In the past my work focused on the economics of traceability and supply chain coordination, food safety.

Over the past 2 years I have supervised 5 MSc students on different aspects of food losses.

My Google Scholar page can be consulted here and my ORCID profile in here

Expertise

Economics of food quality and information, Food Marketing, Supply chain coordination, Consumer research on nutrition and diet choices, Food Policy, choice experiments, applied econometrics.

Current projects

1.       Smart nutrition labels –This ongoing project with colleagues at the Kent Business School and the School of Economics at the University of Kent. Our aim is to examine whether the provision of aggregate nutrition information on the content of food in the act of purchase through digital technologies helps consumer make healthier food purchases. This research is sponsored by the British Academy.

Past projects

1.   Fraud in Green markets – In this international collaboration with Professors Steve Hamilton from the California Polytechnic Institute, Alexis Gapapin from the University Grenoble Alpes and Dr Olivier Bonroy a senior researcher at INRA -Grenoble Applied Economics Lab, we developed an economic experiment to investigate the effect of market size and alternative monitoring and enforcement rules on the mitigation of fraud in labels with collective reputation (such as organic). This research has been sponsored by INRA and the University Grenoble Alpes.

Teaching

  Undergraduate Teaching

ACE2012  Food Business Economics Module Leader (co-taught with Dr Luca Panzone) - 20 Credits

This module aims to enable students to understand how economic theory and numerical analysis can be used to aid marketing and management decision-making in businesses. The module builds upon introductory economics and examines applications in business economics at an intermediate level. The course is divided into two. The first semester considers consumer and behaviour economics and provides some empirical applications from a marketing perspective. The second considers focus on the economics of business strategy and covers standard models to understand firm business decsions. It will also provide empirical applications and introduce decision on different market structures. Throughout, concepts and applications are made relevant to real world examples.

ACE3066 Food Policy and Evaluation    Module Leader (10 Credits)

This module examines food policy from an applied economics perspective. More specifically, we will introduce the economic concept of welfare and the basic frameworks is used to understand how food policy options are designed and assessed. Then we will discuss a range of contemporary food policy issues and present alternative instruments that have been used address them. Finally we will examine and discuss the implications of food policy options for businesses and consumers.

ACE3079 Economics of Food and Industry Analysis  Module Leader (10 Credits)

The goal of this module is to provide students with contemporary knowledge on how markets operate and offer them rationales to make adequate marketing strategy decisions. In line with developments of food markets in the past 30 years, the module will focus on differentiated food markets and will build on industrial economics models of market strategy.

The module has two sections: 1) in the first section of the module the students will learn theoretic frameworks to understand firm marketing decisions; 2) in the second section the students will have learn by doing preparing a food industry analysis report, where they will be expected to describe the competitive environment the consumer demand trends and the regulatory environment of a food industry of their choice.

Postgraduate Teaching

ACE8109 Agri-Food Economics and Marketing  Module Leader (10 Credits)

This module introduced students to the basic principles of economics informing consumer, business and markets. The course schedule has two main sections. In the first section students will be introduced to the principles of economics analysis, focusing on consumer demand, supply and markets. Also in this section will have a brief introduction to non-competitive markets, which is the basis for the marketing model. Then in the second part of the course will cover applications of the principles to food marketing decisions. Specifically this section covers the following topics: private and public standards (organic and GAPs), brands and labels, food quality marketing,

Publications