Industry-funded research and bias in food science

Anita Rao ()
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Anita Rao: University of Chicago

Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, No 2, 39-67

Abstract: Abstract Is industry-funded scientific research likely to be biased towards finding positive results? Is industry more likely to work on topics with likely positive outcomes? Using publication-level data and focusing on food groups that are typically considered healthy, I evaluate each article’s abstract using crowdsourcing tools. I find little evidence to support selection on topics with positive outcomes, but industry is less likely to work on topics classified as unrelated to health. Conditional on a topic, I find that industry-funded research is 3.2% more positive compared to non-industry funded research with grains that receive heavier funding responsible for most of the effect. Industry-funded research is also more likely to receive a mention in certain industry newsletters. Coupled with firm incentives to use science to further their marketing efforts, such increased trade press coverage might play a role in shaping consumers’ opinions on what is healthy.

Keywords: Empirical industrial organization; Consumer protection; Industry funding; Bias in science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L20 M31 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s11129-021-09244-z

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