Snacks, nudges and asymmetric peer influence: Evidence from food choice experiments with children in Indonesia

Margarita de Vries Mecheva, Matthias Rieger, Robert Sparrow, Erfi Prafiantini and Rina Agustina

Journal of Health Economics, 2021, vol. 79, issue C

Abstract: Many children in low- and middle-income countries are growing up during a rapid nutrition transition. Experimental evidence on food choice in developing countries is scarce, while it is unclear to what extent evidence from high-income countries can be generalized. Children participated in a snack choice experiment. We expose some children to emoji labels encouraging healthy snacks, while others observe healthy or unhealthy snacking by peers. While emoji labels moderately promote healthy snacking, the adverse effect of observing a peer eating the unhealthy snack is very large. The effect associated with observing a healthy peer is insignificant. Additionally, cross-randomized blocks of children watched a nutrition video to study the interaction of information provision and nudging. The video independently improves healthy choices but does not aid the emoji nudge and cannot counter the strong negative peer effect. We compare our findings to studies conducted in developed countries and discuss policy implications.

Keywords: Food choice; Nudges; Peer effects; Overweight; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:79:y:2021:i:c:s016762962100093x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102508

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