William A. Masters – Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, Tufts University

Hi – thanks for visiting. I am a Professor at Tufts University, in the Friedman School of Nutrition with a secondary appointment in the Department of Economics. Timeline of links below summarize recent work, or click links for publications and funding details, see a few talks on vimeo & youtube, music playlists or my school page or AAEA bio.

Blog posts, photos and outreach are on twitter and on my FoodEcon site.

Recent publications (open access or link to preprint)

July 2021 working paper on food prices during COVID
July 2021 article on price data availability, forthcoming in Food Policy
June 2021 brief on cost of preparing a basic meal for the UN FSS
June 2021 report on true cost accounting in food & ag for the UN FSS
May 2021 article on cost-effectiveness of food interventions in GFS
Mar 2021 article on global nutritional inequality in Nature Food
Feb 2021 article on restaurant menu item descriptions in AJPM
Jan 2021 article on topic selection and research ethics in AEPP
Jan 2021 working paper on measuring resilience in panel data
Jan 2021 book chapter on agriculture and undernutrition
Dec 2020 article on seasonality of diet costs in Science Advances
Dec 2020 background paper on diet costs for the UN system SOFI 2020
Oct 2020 article on affordability of nutritious diets in Food Policy
Sept 2020 article on health equity & child heights in EHB [preprint]
Sept 2020 article on infant feeding & displacement in MCN
July 2020 article on a new diet-health index in BMJ Global Health
Jan 2020 article on affordability of better diets in Lancet Global Health
Sept 2019 article on children’s first foods in Food Policy
July 2019 report on quality of infant foods for IFPRI-Malawi
June 2019 technical brief on economic evaluation for ANH Academy
June 2019 article on seasonality of nutrition outcomes, in AJCN
May 2019 review article on economics of nutrition, in ARRE
Feb 2019 chapter on agriculture for nutrition, in CABI-IFPRI book
Oct 2018 article on contest incentives for child nutrition, in JDE
Aug 2018 article on price indexes for cost of nutritious diets, in AJAE
Aug 2018 article on nutrition knowledge, in MCN [preprint]
July 2018 article on age misreporting and child heights, in Demography
Apr 2018 article on education and nutrition in BMC Public Health
Jan 2018 article on contest design and incentives in JEBO [preprint]
Jan 2018 article on costs & impacts of food interventions in HPP

Recent news and media

July 2021: The Conversation feature essay about affordability
Feb 2021: Tufts Now on food prices and diet costs
Dec 2020: Nature Outlook on diet costs & affordability
Dec 2020: Tufts Now on what faculty members learned from COVID
May 2020: World Bank blog post on food prices around the world
May 2020: Cheddar 6-min interview on COVID and the food system
May 2020: Newsy 4-min video explainer on COVID and food supply
Apr 2020: Boston Globe on COVID outbreaks at meatpacking plants
Apr 2020: Econofact+PBS & Tufts Now on COVID impacts on food
Dec 2019: NPR column on policies to achieve just-right nutrition
Dec 2019: VoxDev column on cost & affordability of healthy diets
Nov 2019: news, webinar on global affordability of EAT-Lancet diets
Oct 2019: Boston Globe on bottled drinks as the new energy bars
Mar 2019: Fourteen questions about food (especially veganism)
Feb 2019 Hungry Planet free online course from SDG Academy & edX
June 2018 Boston Globe on recyclable packaging vs. less packaging
Jan 2018 Boston Globe on supply chain failures at Whole Foods
Oct 2017 Marketplace radio on decline in ‘diet’ soda and rise of healthier eating habits
Dec 2016 NYTimes report on infant foods in Maternal & Child Nutrition [preprint]

Recent presentations (click title for slides)

Aug 2021 AAEA session on resilience measurement (slides)
Aug 2021 AAEA session on COVID & food markets (slides)
July 2021 GAIN UNFSS side event on healthy diets for all (video)
June 2021 Harvard NORC symposium on food systems (video)
Apr 2021, COVID impacts + diet costs talk for Tufts alumni
Mar 2021, Malnutrition & food system change for AAEA (event, video)
Feb 2021, Food prices and healthy diets for USAID evidence exchange
Feb 2021, discussant for IFPRI book launch
Dec 2020 Affordability of healthy diets for FAO nutrition event
July 2020 Cost of healthy diets in SOFI 2020 for ANH Academy
July 2020 Rural markets, nutrition & resilience for USAID webinar
June 2020 Active learning in online lectures for Tufts CELT workshop
Mar 2020 New food price indexes [+video] for DFID econ seminar
Oct 2019 Cost and affordability of diets [+video] for Friedman seminar
Oct 2019 Costs of diets as a policy indicator [+1 pager] for USAID
Oct 2019 Quality of infant cereals in Malawi [+1 pager] for USAID
Sept 2019 Markets for nutrition (video) at the Gates Foundation
Sept 2019 Econo-nutrition (video) for the UC Network Summer School
Aug 2019 Cost of diets for Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition
July 2019 Proportional rewards in prize contests, for AAEA symposium
June 2019 Food trade & nutritional inequality (video), for ANH plenary
June 2019 Affordability of nutritious diets for the ANH learning labs
June 2019 Cost-effectiveness of ag-nut projects for ANH learning labs
June 2019 Multidisciplinarity as crossing cultures, for AAEA workshop
June 2019 Access to nutritious diets for panel on food systems at ICABR
May 2019 NAS committee on inducement prizes (slides here)
May 2019 IFPRI seminar & video on cost of nutritious diets (+ slides)
May 2019 Economics for nutrition for Tufts Talks Obesity
May 2019: Tufts Teaching with Technology award (video, slides)

Links below list archived news and media, publications and presentations

Student & project papers at ASN (Baltimore), June 8-11

June 8th 9:40-9:44, Poster Theater 1 Flash Session
- Shibani Ghosh on Measuring resilience in nutrition
June 8th 11:35-11:39, Poster Theater 1 Flash Session
- Danielle Krobath on Menu descriptions and health halos
June 8th 11:00-12:00, Poster session
- Anna Herforth on Cost of recommended diets (Board #17)
- Kate Schneider, Nutrient adequacy at the household level (Board #39)
June 9th 1:45-2:45, Poster session
- Winnie Bell & Keith Lividini on Global inequality in food and nutrition (Poster Board #224)
June 10th 12:45-2:45, Poster session
- Amelia Finaret, Sibling rivalry in health of twins (Poster Board #531)
- Binita Subedi, Nutrients and contaminants in premixed infant cereals (Poster Board #286)
June 10th, 10:30-12:30 — Oral Session #21 on Improving Diets in Vulnerable Populations (room 317)
- Ilana Cliffer [11:00-11:15], Displacement effects of fortified flours versus lipid-based supplements
- Yan Bai [11:15-11:30], Heterogeneity in nutrient needs and diet costs

Student & project papers at AAEA (Atlanta), July 21-23

Track session on market prices and malnutrition, with Robel Alemu, Yan Bai and Derek Headey and Ellen McCullough
Selected papers from the CANDASA project:
- Stevier Kaiyatsa: “Do remote rural people pay higher prices for more nutritious foods? Evidence from 130,975 price observations at rural markets in Malawi, 2007-2017”
- Kate Schneider: “Advancing the use of household surveys for nutrition: Nutrient adequacy at the household level and the cost of nutritious diets in Malawi”
- Fantu Bachewe: “Affordability of nutrient adequacy and dietary energy in Ethiopia, 2001-2017”
Selected paper from the Nutrition Innovation Lab:
- Sonia Zaharia: “Measuring Resilience: A Triple-Difference Approach”

Archived news and media

Feb 2018 video (7 min.) from Global Food+ speed talk on infant foods
Sept 2017 video (~1 hr) of Johns Hopkins SAIS seminar on agriculture & nutrition in Africa
Aug 2017 Boston Globe and WBZ television on how Amazon will change Whole Foods
June 2017 Econofact post about temporary, fraud-resistant nature of SNAP
June 2017 Agrilinks post about agriculture’s impacts on poverty, nutrition and resilience
May 2017 Boston Globe story about the vanilla price spike and cyclone Enawo
Apr 2017 Econofact post about child orientation of SNAP and the 2018 Farm Bill
Apr 2017 video, slides, & paper on impacts of ag research for USAID webinar
Dec 2016 NYTimes report on infant foods in Maternal & Child Nutrition [preprint]
Nov 2016 comments on NEPR radio about the food policy ballot question in MA
Oct 2016 analysis on WBUR.org about the food policy ballot question in MA
June 2016 results of FSIN TWG: User’s guide to indicators of food & nutrition security
Apr 2016 video on dietary transition and urbanization
Feb 2016 video of Friedman seminar on nutritional quality of infant foods
Jan 2016 article + explainer about restaurant portion size in the US (+other news coverage)
May 2015 video made by MIT students on urban and peri-urban farming near Boston
Mar 2015 launch of the FSIN working group on measuring food & nutrition security
Feb 2015 webinar for SPRING on integrated agriculture-nutrition interventions
Nov 2014 video for AgriLInks on urbanization and smallholders
Aug 2014 blog quote from IFPRI for AAEA publication of enduring quality award
July 2014 blog post for AgResults on incentives for agricultural innovation
May 2014 radio quote on Marketplace about staple crops and superfoods
Sept 2013 report from UN SDSN on sustainable agriculture and food systems
Aug 2013 Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize from AAEA ($1500 award went here)
Apr 2013 news quote in Chronicle of Higher Ed on nutrition assistance programs
Mar 2013 hyperinflation vacation in The Atlantic, with my Zimbabwe wall of shame
May 2012 blog quote on the Freakonomics blog on food miles v. carbon pricing
Apr 2011 interview on Radio Australia about the world food crisis
Jan 2011 article in Tufts Journal (and Tufts Nutrition magazine) about child nutrition
Oct 2010 Nutrition CRSP launch, nicely described in the Tufts Daily
May 2010 blog post at Freakonomics about my farewell talk at Purdue
Apr. 2010 blog post for Project Syndicate with optimism about Africa
Jun. 2009 econo-doggerel at Freakonomics (reprinted in When to Rob a Bank)

Older articles and working papers

Dec 2017 article on ag & nutrition transition, forthcoming in J. of Development Studies
Oct 2017 article on priority interventions for S. Asia & Africa in Mat & Child Nutrition
Aug 2017 article on incentives to improve childcare services in J. of Health Economics
June 2017 report for the World Bank on groundnut policy in Senegal
May 2017 technical note for FAO on measuring the cost of nutritious diets
Feb 2017 book chapter on private-sector land development in Africa
Jan 2017 article on nutrition smoothing in PLOS ONE
Dec 2016 article on nutrient testing of infant foods in Mat & Child Nutrition [reprint]
Sept 2016 working paper on dietary change for Global Panel Foresight Project
Sept 2016 chapter on economic causes of malnutrition for Good Nutrition book
Aug 2016 article on climate and child height in Economics & Human Biology [open access]
July 2016 article on agriculture and nutrition transition in Agricultural Economics [preprint]
July 2016 chapter on land use for festschrift in honor of Hans Binswanger-Mkhize
June 2016 technical assessment and user’s guide to indicators of food security and nutrition
Jan 2016 article in JAND about restaurant portion size in the US (+news coverage)
June 2015 article in Food Security on urbanization and rural malnutrition [open access]
Mar 2015 FASEB abstracts on rural isolation and health outcomes, self-weighing and weight loss, and nutritional composition of infant foods
Feb 2015 article in Food Security on agricultural policy for improved nutrition [preprint]
Aug 2014 3rd ed. of textbook on Economics of Agricultural Development is out (at your local bookshop, online or request an exam copy)
Apr 2014 article in Journal of Economic Growth on agriculture and urbanization [preprint]
Apr 2014 article in Journal of Development Economics on disease and development in Burkina Faso [preprint]
Apr 2014 article in African J. of Ag. and Resource Economics on Malawi’s input subsidy program [PDF]
Feb 2014 article for Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences on ag., nutrition & health in global development [preprint]
Oct 2013 SSRN working paper on theory vs. experimental results in prize contests
Sept 2013 GAIN report on improving nutritional value chain for peanut products in Ghana
Sept 2013 GFS article on urbanization & farm size in Asia and Africa [preprint]
July 2013 NBER working paper on disease control, demography and development in Burkina Faso
Jan 2013 Japanese edition of our Econ of Ag Development textbook
Jan 2013 book chapter on child nutrition in economic development
Oct 2012 article in Journal of Development Studies on child nutrition and poverty reduction
May 2012 chapter on Transformational Incentives in USAID’s Frontiers in Development book and conference; with related CGD paper by Kim Elliott
May 2011 Chicago Council Progress Report on U.S. Leadership in Global Ag Development (see press release and some commentary)
Feb 2011 IGC working paper and policy brief on quality certification of infant foods in Ghana
July 2010 chapter on development and policy for Lusk, Roosen and Shogren’s Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Food Consumption and Policy
June 2010 article in Journal of Public Economics on proportional vs. winner-take-all contests [preprint]
June 2010 article in Economics and Human Biology on underweight children in developing countries [preprint]
Mar. 2009 World Bank book on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Africa

Archived presentations

Apr 2019: Slides on cost of nutritious diets for Tufts Global Health seminar
Apr 2019: Talk on food system governance, at Purdue EGH event
Feb 2019: Discussion on research ethics [framing ppt, pdf], with PhD students at Tufts
Dec 2018: Seminar on cost of nutritious diets, at IFPRI
Oct. 2018: Paper on infants’ first foods [+slides] presented by Samira Choudhury at NEUDC
Oct. 2018: Presentation on diet transformation [in pdf] for public BIFAD meeting at World Food Prize week
Oct. 2018: Birthdates and height-for-age speed talk [+paper] at Tufts nutrition data summit
July 2018 ICAE slides – links to session info:
- speed & timing of nutrition transition, at PIM workshop
- price indexes for cost of nutritious diets, at ARENA workshop
- ag-nutrition linkages, in session on agriculture for the SDGs
- caregiver incentives, in session on nutrition
- hermetic storage, in session on food security
June 2018 ICABR talks on nutrition knowledge [slides] and on fortified infant cereals [slides]
June 2018 ANH Academy Learning Lab on prices indexes for nutritious foods [description, slides]
June 2018 ANH Academy Learning Lab on econ for agri-health researchers [description, slides, video]
June 2018 students at ASN – links to session info:
- Yan Bai on cost of nutritious diets [slides]
- Kate Schneider on nutrition knowledge [poster]
- Gloria Guevara on demand for hermetic bags [poster]
- Jifan Wang on diet quality measurement [poster]
May 2018 slides for DFID on cost of nutritious diets
Feb 2018 slides + video (7 min) speed talk on infant foods from Global Food+
Jan 2018 slides + paper on cost of nutritious diets for ASSA
Nov 2017 slides on caregiver incentives for World Bank seminar on JHE paper
Oct 2017 slides on IMMANA Fellowships & cost of nutritious diets for IUNS ICN
Oct 2017 lecture on agricultural development: a global, long-term perspective
Sept 2017 slides on nutrition transition & agricultural change in Africa at SAIS and USAID
Sept 2017 slides for IFPRI talk on child diet diversity, and UPenn talk on childcare incentives
July 2017 AAEA slides on child diets, ag research, nutrition smoothing and errors in child age
July 2017 video of ANH Academy Learning Lab on economics for agri-health researchers (all slides: 87MB!)
Apr 2017 slides, paper & video on impacts of ag research for USAID webinar
Apr 2017 paper on incentives for child caregivers at Tufts economics faculty seminar
Nov 2016 slides on structural change for FAO workshop on nutrition and trade
- Nov 2016 slides on cost of dietary diversity for FAO workshop on nutrition and trade
Nov 2016 slides for Clark University seminar on infant foods
Nov 2016 slides for NEUDC on caregiver incentives in India (+ discussant slides)
Aug 2016 slides for AAEA panel on agricultural transformation in Africa
June 2016 slides and FSIN Users Guide to indicators of malnutrition for the ANH Academy
Apr 2016 slides + video for Tufts research day on diets, urbanization and the race against Malthus
Feb 2016 slides for Harvard Weatherhead seminar on sustainable food & farming
Feb 2016 video and slides (in pdf) of Friedman seminar on premixed complementary foods
Nov 2015 presentation for Rome-Based Agencies joint technical workshop on SDG2
Oct 2015 presentation for BIFAD side event at World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue
Oct 2015 presentation at Rutgers University joint agriculture-nutrition seminar
Aug 2015 ICAE plenary presentation on nutrition transition and agricultural transformation
Aug 2015 ICAE presentations on ag-nutrition linkages and aligning agriculture and nutrition
Aug 2015 ICAE presentation on nutritional quality of packaged complementary foods
Aug 2015 ICAE poster on smoothing of seasonal malnutrition in DRC
Aug 2015 ICAE presentation on investment in farmland with Derek Byerlee and Dan Robinson
Mar 2015 paper for World Bank conference on investment in farmland with Derek Byerlee and Dan Robinson
Feb 2015 recorded webinar for SPRING on integration of agricultural and nutritional interventions
Dec 2014 talk at IEG-IFPRI conference in New Delhi on rural children’s nutrition in India vs. Africa & the rest
Dec 2014 talk at Delhi School of Economics on market access and farm nutrition [+paper]
Nov 2014 slides for Fletcher Food Policy Group on agricultural transformation in Africa
Oct 2014 talk at Gates Grand Challenges meeting on aligning agriculture and nutrition
Sept 2o14 talk at IFPRI on market access as a source of resilience and nutrition security
July 2014 talk at USAID on urbanization and smallholder farmers in Africa
July 2014 talk at AAEA on global nutrition trends
June 2014 talk on quality certification logos for GAIN multi-nutrient supplements initiative at NYAS
May 2014 posters on complementary foods and peanut-based products for Micronutrient Forum in Addis Ababa
May 2014 new slides and handout for NCFAR Capitol Hill seminars on agricultural development [+favorite slides #1 and #2]
Mar 2014 updated slides on agriculture-nutrition linkages for HSPH course in global health
Mar 2014 updated slides on global malnutrition at MIT Knight science journalism food boot camp
Nov 2013 presentation slides for Tufts Medical School seminar on infant food quality
Aug 2013 AAEA presentations on global malnutrition and agriculture-nutrition linkages
June 2013 poster describing new project on marketed complementary foods (+high-res version)
June 2013 slides (or PDF) on nutritional quality of marketed complementary food for A4NH workshop
Mar 2013 changing face of malnutrition talk at MIT Knight science journalism food boot camp
Oct 2012 slides for APHA on infant feeding in developing countries
Sep. 2012 slides for Maggie McMillan’s Econ 136 on disease, demography and development
Aug. 2012 presentations at the AAEA meetings on infant feeding, African development and foreign assistance
Apr 2012 workshop on Food Wars in Africa? at the Harvard International Development Conference
Mar 2012 discussion of Africa’s turnaround at MIT Knight Fellows’ Food Boot Camp [+ book chapter]
Mar 2012 talk on Proportional Prizes at NC-1034 meeting, Washington DC [+ new paper]
Feb 2012 talk on Africa’s Last Famine? at the Radcliffe Gym (event site) [Video]
Jan 2012 talk on food security at the Northwestern University human rights conference
Jan 2012 symposium on malnutrition at the NCSE conference in Washington, DC.
Oct 2011 talk on Africa’s turnaround (+book chapter) at the African Economic Conference in Addis
Oct 2011 talk on food prices and nutrition at McGill conference on food security (program here)
Sep 2011 Seminar on infant foods at Harvard School of Public Health (streaming video, slides with photos (huge file, 48MB !)
Aug 2011 NBER African Successes conference paper, slides and presentation on Africa’s turnaround
July 2011 Nutrition CRSP implementation workshop in Kampala (photos)
June 2011 Nutrition CRSP launch workshop in Kampala (see photos)
May 2011 Tufts research day on sustainability (see new slides and book chapter)
Apr 2011 Stanford symposium on poverty in Africa — discussant for Chris Barrett seminar (my bit starts around 70 minutes into the streaming video)
Mar 2011 paper + slides on Africa’s turnaround, for the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance and Harvard African Development Conference
Feb 2011 webcast + slides on world food crises, for Friedman School online seminar
Feb 2011 streaming video of presentations at the IFPRI 2020 conference in New Delhi on the Nutrition CRSP (5 min.) and on the economics of infant feeding (10 min.)
Dec 2010 talk on Africa’s turnaround, in French as Le moment africain (ppt slides and mp3 audio, from SFER)
Dec 2010 talk on asymmetric information in agriculture at NSF-ICG-AERC workshop in Mombasa
Nov 2010 talk on remedies for asymmetric information in food and agriculture at Tufts economics department
Nov 2010 talks on undernutrition for the Friedman Symposium and the Board of Overseers
Nov. 2009 talk at the AfDB African Economic Conference on incentives for innovation
Oct. 2009 talk at the ADA Food and Nutrition Conference on world food markets