Xibo Wan, PhD, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Connecticut, will present the EEEP Seminar Series, “Bringing the Local Farm to the Table: Can Farmers’ Markets Reduce Food Utilization Disparity?” on October 8, 2025.
Abstract:
Farmers’ markets aim to expand access to healthy food, yet we lack scalable evidence on who uses them, and which policies are most effective. Xibo links nationwide 2019–2022 cell-phone mobility to neighborhood socioeconomic data and food-desert (FD) status, estimates a structural destination-choice model, and values policies in dollars via compensating variation. Four findings emerge. First, FD residents visit less and travel farther, choosing markets that are economically similar, but not racially similar, to their neighborhoods. Second, a decomposition attributes roughly 70\% of the FD–non-FD visitation gap to travel-preference (demand) differences, about 20\% to supply availability and access, and about 10\% to market attribute preference (demand). He finds that urban gaps reflect both travel costs and socio-demographic fit, while rural gaps are driven mainly by high travel costs and sparse supply. Third, policy simulations indicate that universal Supplemental acceptance of the Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would close about 18\% of the gap, universal evening operations about 33\%, and adding one representative market per FD CBG nearly 58\%, with especially large rural gains. Fourth, the benefit–cost analysis shows SNAP delivers the highest return per public dollar, new markets generate large absolute benefits–particularly in rural areas– but at a higher cost, and evening hours are most valuable where evening demand is strong.
Bio:
Xibo Wan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut whose research uses big-data economics to understand how people interact with natural and food systems and to design equitable environmental and agricultural policies.