Impact of Online Shopping on Nutritional Quality of Diets

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Présentation INRAE

L’Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE) est un établissement public de recherche rassemblant une communauté de travail de 12 000 personnes, avec 272 unités de recherche, de service et expérimentales, implantées dans 18 centres sur toute la France. INRAE se positionne parmi les tout premiers leaders mondiaux en sciences agricoles et alimentaires, en sciences du végétal et de l’animal. Ses recherches visent à construire des solutions pour des agricultures multi-performantes, une alimentation de qualité et une gestion durable des ressources et des écosystèmes.

Environnement de travail, missions et activités

Context and internship goals
INRAE offers a master internship in the research unit MoISA, an interdisciplinary research unit focusing
on sustainable agri-food systems, food security and food sustainability. The aim of the internship is to
assess the impact of online shopping on the nutritional quality of food purchases.
The rise of online food retail is profoundly transforming consumer behavior and raising new questions
about nutrition and food inequality. While the physical food environment has been widely studied,
the impact of the digital environment on the nutritional quality of food purchases remains under
explored—despite its growing importance since the COVID-19 crisis. Recent findings suggest that the
share of unhealthy products tend to be lower in online grocery shopping compared to in-store
purchases. While the absence of direct physical exposure may discourage impulsive and unhealthy
purchases, nutritional quality of online purchases may decrease due to concerns regarding fresh
products, service fees and the lack of social interaction. Furthermore, the introduction of drive-
through/grocery pickup services may result in an increase of over-all household purchases, or may
even substitute in-store purchases, mainly for low-income households living in poor retail
environments, which points to potential complementarities and substitutions between the online and
off-line channels.

The internship has two main components. First, the intern will conduct a comprehensive review of
existing literature on the relationship between online food environments and the nutritional quality
of food purchases in a European context. This review will help identify key behavioral patterns
associated with online grocery shopping, the socio-economic characteristics of online grocery users
and the composition and nutritional quality of their shopping baskets. Second, the intern will conduct
an empirical analysis using data on household food purchases and theirquality in order to identify key
determinants of nutritional quality of food purchases and to establish whether online shopping plays
a role in this. This analysis includes 1) a descriptive analysis of food quantities and nutritional quality
for the different shopping channel, that is, online and offline, 2) a simple econometric model to identify
the association between online shopping and nutritional quality of food purchases, and 3) a causal
inference framework to explore the impact on nutritional quality of changes in the food environment
(online and offline), such as the introduction of drive services or household relocations to areas with
greater drive availability. The intern will rely on the Kantar Worldpanel dataset for food purchases, the
CIQUAL database for the nutritional quality of food products and the TradeDimensions dataset for
localisation of the food stores in France between 2008 and 2019.

 

Full-time internship

 

Formations et compétences recherchées

Profile of candidates
Master student in (applied) economics or statistics. Proficiency in econometric modelling and
quantitative tools (R or stata) is required. Knowledge of impact assessment is an asset. Academic
English and oral fluency/good command of the French language are needed. Sensitivity to topics
regarding food policy, sustainable diets or nutrition transition. Interest in academic research

Votre qualité de vie à INRAE

En rejoignant INRAE, vous bénéficiez (selon le type de contrat et sa durée) :

-  jusqu'à 30 jours de congés + 15 RTT par an (pour un temps plein)
- d'un soutien à la parentalité : CESU garde d'enfants, prestations pour les loisirs ;
- de dispositifs de développement des compétences : formation, conseil en orientation professionnelle ;
- d'un accompagnement social : conseil et écoute, aides et prêts sociaux ;
- de prestations vacances et loisirs : chèque-vacances, hébergements à tarif préférentiel ;
- d'activités sportives et culturelles ;
- d'une restauration collective.

Modalités pour postuler

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