Bachir Kassas

University of Florida | UF · Department of Food and Resource Economics

Florida’s craft beer industry has undergone explosive growth in the past decade, expanding sixfold from just 66 to 396 breweries, with an estimated economic impact of over $4 billion dollars in 2022. The craft beer sector is primarily small businesses that may lack large domestic breweries' resources and expertise to conduct in-house market researc...

A strong research program is crucial for academic faculty, as it influences promotions, tenure, salary raises, and professional recognitions/awards. We summarize relative journal rating/ranking metrics from multiple sources, and for selected journals commonly targeted by agricultural economists, to provide insights on their perceived value. We also...

This study investigates whether wording a promotional marketing message as originating from the US government vs. the US president impacts consumers’ responsiveness to the message. Using a discrete choice experiment, it examines consumer responsiveness to President Biden’s order promoting domestic production. Results indicate that consumers are wil...

Goat meat consumption has grown in recent years due to dietary and cultural changes. US demand has surpassed domestic supply, presenting an opportunity for industry expansion. This study provides valuable insights into consumer preferences for goat meat. A sample of 1,015 Floridians was randomly assigned to a control and three treatment groups that...

Labor is a critical component of a successful agricultural venture. In 2020, the USDA reported that 10.3% of total US employment was in jobs in the agricultural and food sectors. We rely on food, fiber, and natural resources, and effective agricultural labor is a critical social need, but the challenges inherent in the effort to secure agricultural...

COVID-19 vaccines play a critical role in protecting against infection and transmission of the virus. Therefore, understanding public perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines is essential for successful vaccine promotion. Previous literature reported strong associations between vaccination decisions and several sociodemographic variables. However, knowledg...

The looming demographic cliff, characterized by a projected decline in college student enrollment, can have important impacts for the agricultural and applied economics profession, academic departments, and universities more broadly across the US. This decline will not only affect the financial stability and sustainability of many agricultural econ...

This study aims to investigate consumer acceptance of gene‐edited orange juice, focusing on the influence of behavioral traits. Specifically, we conducted an online survey of US orange juice consumers, using a choice experiment to elicit consumers' preferences for gene editing (GE) versus gene modification (GM) in orange juice. We find that consume...

Considering the growing demand for healthy and environmentally conscious food products in the United States, lamb and goat meat have proved to be beneficial alternatives to other red meats. This study investigates consumer trends and preferences for lamb and goat meat in Florida and sheds light on regional preferences for these products, providing...

Concerns about the numerous health problems associated with unhealthy snacks prompted recommendations to steer individuals toward healthier eating habits. One such recommendation advises limiting unhealthy snacks and replacing them with more fruits and vegetables with significant health benefits. This study investigates US consumers’ perceptions an...

How do emotions influence one’s willingness to take on risk? We show that answering this question can be particularly challenging because induced emotions are highly sensitive to a respondent’s contemporaneous experiences and can be rapidly diluted while respondents answer subsequent survey questions. We randomly assign respondents to one of three...

Introduction Marijuana vaping among adolescents is a growing public health concern. Marijuana vaping exposes youth to greater levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and may be related to e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). This study examined the risk factors for initiating marijuana vaping among US adolescents. Methods...

In the midst of a global pandemic, prevention methods stand as a crucial first step toward addressing the public health crisis and controlling the spread of the virus. However, slowing the spread of the virus hinges on the public’s willingness to follow a combination of mitigation practices to avoid contracting and transmitting the disease. In this...

Impulsive purchasing occurs when consumers succumb to urges to make purchases without careful evaluation. Unlike research examining personal factors as the predictors of impulse purchase behavior, our study incorporates internal and external factors by exploring the interpersonal influences of different types of shopping companions. A survey was co...

Social distancing and stay-at-home orders were implemented as a quick response to the public health crisis created by COVID-19. However, these measures led to competing concerns for public health versus the wellbeing of the economy during the pandemic. This drove polarized views and attitudes towards these measures in the US that threatened their e...

The surge in panic buying during the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to a temporary shortage of several staples and basic supplies in grocery stores, thus limiting the public’s access to basic needs and exacerbating stress and anxiety. The negative societal consequences of panic buying highlight the importance of understanding and plannin...

The use of antibiotics in livestock farming has been a common practice for many years. As one of the leading causes of antibiotic resistance, posing serious threats to animal health, human health and food security, a change in this application practice is needed. However, antibiotics play a crucial role in disease management and control in animal f...

The social stigma against the payoff-maximizing strategy in dictator games is being accepted by more researchers as the most accurate rationalization for the divergence between classical economic theory and laboratory behavior in this setting. By constructing a fake entitlement treatment, where dictator role assignment was purely random, but masque...

The use of neuro-physiological data in models of consumer choice is gaining popularity. This article presents some of the benefits of using psycho-physiological data in analyzing consumer valuation and choice. Eye-tracking, facial expressions, and electroencephalography (EEG) data were used to construct three non-conventional choice models, namely,...

While the vast literature on induced-value second price auctions (SPAs) documents consistent overbidding behavior, this fact is conveniently ignored by some researchers when using SPAs to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for market goods. This raises serious concerns regarding the reliability of the resulting WTP estimates. We propose a simple exper...

The self-control literature suggests two main short-run models with contradictory predictions. By perceiving self-control as a knowledge or perishable resource, those models report a positive and negative impact, respectively, of an initial self-control act on subsequent self-control ability. Using biometric data to monitor compliance enabled us to...

The literature carries an extensive account of discrepancies in preference parameter estimates across different value elicitation methods. This study provides a detailed analysis of the effect of incentive compatibility on discrepancies in reported preferences. Specifically, we construct several partial ranking models (for best and worst alternativ...