Impact of Online Shopping on Nutritional Quality of Diets

Présentation INRAEL'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 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 activitésContext and internship goalsINRAE offers a master internship in the research unit MoISA, an interdisciplinary research unit focusingon sustainable agri-food systems, food security and food sustainability. The aim of the internship is toassess 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 questionsabout 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 underexplored—despite its growing importance since the COVID-19 crisis. Recent findings suggest that theshare of unhealthy products tend to be lower in online grocery shopping compared to in-storepurchases. While the absence of direct physical exposure may discourage impulsive and unhealthypurchases, nutritional quality of online purchases may decrease due to concerns regarding freshproducts, 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 mayeven substitute in-store purchases, mainly for low-income households living in poor retailenvironments, which points to potential complementarities and substitutions between the online andoff-line channels.The internship has two main components. First, the intern will conduct a comprehensive review ofexisting literature on the relationship between online food environments and the nutritional qualityof food purchases in a European context. This review will help identify key behavioral patternsassociated with online grocery shopping, the socio-economic characteristics of online grocery usersand the composition and nutritional quality of their shopping baskets. Second, the intern will conductan empirical analysis using data on household food purchases and theirquality in order to identify keydeterminants of nutritional quality of food purchases and to establish whether online shopping playsa role in this. This analysis includes 1) a descriptive analysis of food quantities and nutritional qualityfor the different shopping channel, that is, online and offline, 2) a simple econometric model to identifythe association between online shopping and nutritional quality of food purchases, and 3) a causalinference 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 withgreater drive availability. The intern will rely on the Kantar Worldpanel dataset for food purchases, theCIQUAL database for the nutritional quality of food products and the TradeDimensions dataset forlocalisation of the food stores in France between 2008 and 2019.Full-time internshipFormations et compétences recherchéesMaster/Ingénieur (Bac+5)Profile of candidatesMaster student in (applied) economics or statistics. Proficiency in econometric modelling andquantitative tools (R or stata) is required. Knowledge of impact assessment is an asset. AcademicEnglish and oral fluency/good command of the French language are needed. Sensitivity to topicsregarding food policy, sustainable diets or nutrition transition. Interest in academic researchVotre qualité de vie à INRAEEn 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 postulerJ'envoie mon CV et ma lettre de motivationLes personnes accueillies à INRAE, établissement public de recherche, sont soumises aux dispositions du Code de la fonction publique notamment en ce qui concerne l'obligation de neutralité et le respect du principe de laïcité. A ce titre, dans l'exercice de leurs fonctions, qu'elles soient ou non au contact du public, elles ne doivent pas manifester leurs convictions, par leur comportement ou leur tenue, qu'elles soient religieuses, philosophiques ou politiques. > En savoir plus : sitefonction