Portrait of Eric Ayamga

Eric Ayamga

PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, Texas Tech University

Fifth-year PhD Candidate

I study health economics and public policy through the lens of industrial organization, examining how information asymmetries affect consumer choices and firm behavior.

CV (PDF)

Research Interests

  • Health economics
  • Industrial organization
  • Information economics
  • Public Economics
  • Energy transition

Education

  • M.Phil. in Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2022
  • B.A. in Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2019

Research

Job Market Paper

Nutrition Labels, Information Cost, and Consumer Choice of Healthy Foods

Eric Ayamga

I use U.S. retail scanner data to study the effectiveness of the 2016 FDA Nutrition Facts label revision. I find only modest effects on consumer demand with limited substitution away from high-sugar products. To explain these findings, I develop and estimate a structural random-coefficients demand model with rational inattention, in which consumers face information-processing costs when acquiring nutritional information. The model estimates reveal that consumers pay little attention to the current Nutrition Facts label because of the high cognitive cost. I then use the model to compare the current labels with other much simpler labels. The results show that warning labels substantially reduced information-processing cost and sugar consumption by 36% through consumer substitution and product reformulation. Overall, our findings suggest that reducing cognitive costs through simplified FOP designs can meaningfully improve consumer welfare and shift consumption away from unhealthy products.

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Working Papers

  • Eric Ayamga (2026)

    Hotter Days, Sweet Choices: Temperature Extremes and Consumer Food Choice Working Paper

    This paper examines the impact of extreme heat exposure on consumer demand for added sugars. Using high-frequency retail scanner data combined with detailed local weather information and I find that an increase in the number of extreme hot days leads to a statistically and economically significant rise in the demand for added sugars. The effect is nonlinear, with stronger responses observed at higher temperature thresholds and during prolonged heat episodes. These findings have important implications for both climate policy and public health.

  • Eric Ayamga (2026)

    Front-of-Package Sugar Label and Consumer Demand: Heterogeneous Evidence Across Categories Working Paper

    This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the demand- and supply-side effects of this disclosure-based labeling policy, using nationally representative Nielsen retail scanner data (2018–2023) covering nine major breakfast and snack food categories. On the demand side, I find substantial heterogeneity across categories: within-category substitution away from high-sugar products is concentrated in categories with abundant low-sugar substitutes, while cross-category substitution is limited and occurs mainly within sugar tiers rather than across product types. On the supply side, manufacturers responded through modest reformulation, and product turnover disproportionately favored low-sugar items, with high-sugar products more likely to exit and new entrants skewing toward lower sugar content. These results suggest that even a disclosure-only labeling policy, without interpretive warnings or thresholds, can shift both consumer purchases and firm product strategy, but that its effectiveness depends heavily on category-specific substitution possibilities with implications for how labeling policies should be designed and evaluated.

  • Eric Ayamga (2026)

    Information versus Prices: Optimal Nutrition Policy under Limited Consumer Attention Working Paper

    This paper examines the optimal design of nutrition policy when consumers pay limited attention to nutritional information. I develop a structural model of consumer demand that incorporates information processing costs and heterogeneous preferences to compare simplified nutrition labels, sugar taxes, and their combination. The analysis evaluates how these policies affect food choices, sugar consumption, consumer welfare, and firm profits, accounting for health externalities and internalities arising from underestimated health consequences. By distinguishing policies that reduce information frictions from those that alter price incentives, the paper identifies conditions under which information provision and taxation act as substitutes or complements in improving dietary outcomes.

  • Eric Ayamga (2026)

    Endogenous Firm Responses to Information Policies Working Paper

Publications

Software & Tools

Stata Statistical analysis and econometric estimation.
Python Data processing, structural demand estimation, and research automation.
R Statistical computing and visualization.
LaTeX Academic writing and document preparation.
MATLAB Numerical computation and modeling.

Teaching

  • Principles of Microeconomics — Instructor, Texas Tech University, Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Fall 2026
  • Monetary Economics — Teaching Assistant, Texas Tech University, Spring 2025
  • Microeconomics II (PhD Game Theory) — Teaching Assistant, Texas Tech University, Spring 2024
  • Game Theory (undergraduate) — Teaching Assistant, Texas Tech University, Spring 2024
  • Macroeconomic Theory and Policy (PhD) — Teaching Assistant, Texas Tech University, Fall 2023
  • Principles of Money, Banking, and Credit — Teaching Assistant, Texas Tech University, Fall 2023
  • Microeconomic Theory I (M.Phil.) — Teaching Assistant, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Semester I
  • Advanced Econometrics — Teaching Assistant, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Fall 2019
  • Advanced Econometrics — Teaching Assistant, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Spring 2020
  • Environmental and Resource Economics — Teaching Assistant, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Fall 2019
  • Environmental and Resource Economics — Teaching Assistant, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Spring 2020

Awards & Fellowships

  • Graduate Part-Time Instructor — Texas Tech University, 2025
  • Dr. Rashid Al-Hmoud Fellowship — Texas Tech University, 2022–2026
  • Graduate Teaching Scholarship — Texas Tech University, 2022
  • Graduate Students Research Support Fund — Texas Tech University, 2025
  • Faculty Dean Award — Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2019
  • Best Economics Student Award — Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2018–2019

Presentations

  • Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting — Houston, TX, November 2026 (upcoming)
    Paper: Hotter Days, Sweet Choices: Temperature Extremes and Consumer Food Choice
  • ASSA/AEA Annual Meeting — Washington, DC, Jan 2027 (upcoming)
    Paper: Nutrition Labels, Information Cost, and Consumer Choice of Healthy Foods
  • ASHEcon Meeting — Minneapolis, 2026
    Paper: Do Front-of-Package Sugar Labels Shift Consumer Demand away from Diabetes-Risk Foods
  • Midwest Economic Association Conference — Kansas, 2025
    Paper: Decomposed Oil-Driven Inflation Persistence and Asymmetric Shocks
  • ASSA/AEA Annual Meeting — San Francisco, 2025
  • International Studies Association Annual Meeting — Lubbock, 2025
  • ASSA/AEA Annual Meeting — San Antonio, 2024

Referee Service

  • International Economics and Economic Policy
  • South African Journal of Economics
  • African Development Review

Professional Affiliations

  • American Economic Association
  • American Society of Health Economists
  • Southern Economic Association
  • Midwest Economic Association
  • Industrial Organization Society
  • International Energy Agency
  • International Association of Energy Economics

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