Research

I am an applied economist with expertise in a cross-over of empirical industrial organization, food marketing, and food and health policy. My research program applies the theories and empirical tools from industrial organization and quantitative marketing to food retail strategies and location decisions, the acquisition of nutrition and healthy foods with an emphasis on at-risk populations, and regional food systems.

Food & nutrition policy

Cleary, R., Y. Liu, and A. Carlson. “Socio-economic Inequality in the Distribution of Nutritional Quality in the U.S.” Under review.

Liu, Y., R. Cleary, and A. Carlson. “Health News Environment and the Distribution of Diet Quality.” Under review.

Cleary, R., A. Bonanno, A. Ghazaryan*, L. Bellows, and M. McCloskey. (2021). “School Meals and Quality of Household Food Acquisitions.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43: 1385 - 1442.

Jablonski, B.B.R., J. Casnovsky, J. Clark, R. Cleary, B. Feingold, D. Freedman, S. Gray, L. Schmitt Olabisi, X. Romeiko, C. Walsh, and A.E. van den Berg. (2021). “Emergency Food Provision for Children and Families during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Examples from Five U.S. Cities.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(1): 169 - 184.

Palmer, A., A. Bonanno, K. Clancy, C. Cho, R. Cleary, and R. Lee*. (2021). “Enhancing Understanding of Food Purchasing Patterns in the Northeast using Multiple Datasets.” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 36(5): 417 - 431.

Prescott, M., R. Cleary, A. Bonanno, M. Costanigro, B.B.R. Jablonski, and A. Long*. (2020). “Farm to School Activities and Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review.” Advances in Nutrition, 11(2): 357 - 374.

Bonanno, A., F. Bimbo, R. Cleary, and E. Castellari. (2018). “Food Labels and Adult BMI in Italy: an Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach.” Food Policy, 74: 199–211.

Food access, store location & strategies

Ge, H., S.J. Goetz, R. Cleary, J. Yi, and M. Gómez. (2022). “Facility Locations in the Fresh Produce Supply Chain: An Integration of Optimization and Empirical Methods.” International Journal of Production Economics, 249(7): 108534.

Cleary, R. and L. Chenarides. (2022). “Food Retail Profits, Competition, and the Great Recession.” Agribusiness: an International Journal, 38(3): 557 - 578.

Cleary, R. and J.P. Chavas. (2022). “Strategic Supermarket Pricing of Private Labels and Manufacturer Brands.” Empirical Economics, 62: 2921 - 2950.

Cleary, R., S.J. Goetz, D. Thilmany McFadden, and H. Ge. (2019). “Excess Competition Among Food Hubs.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 44(1): 141–S7.

Cleary, R., A. Bonanno, L. Chenarides, and S.J. Goetz. (2018). “Store Profitability and Public Policies to Improve Food Access in Non-Metro U.S. Counties.” Food Policy, 75: 158–170.

Cleary, R. and R.A. Lopez. (2014). “Supermarket Responses to Wal-Mart Supercenter Expansion: a Structural Approach.” Empirical Economics, 47(3): 905-925.

Food insecurity

Berning, J., A. Bonanno, and R. Cleary. “Disparities in Food Insecurity Among Black and White Households: An Analysis by Age Cohort, Poverty, Education and Home Ownership.” Forthcoming, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.

Berning, J., C. Norris*, and R. Cleary. “Food Insecurity Among Immigrant Populations in the United States.” Forthcoming, Food Security.

Berning, J., R. Cleary, and A. Bonanno. (2022). “Food Insecurity and Time Use in Elderly vs. Non-Elderly: An Exploratory Analysis.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy,http://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13275.

Food systems

Jablonski, B.B.R., M. Carolan, J. Hale, D. Thilmany McFadden, E. Love*, L. Christensen, T. Covey, L. Bellows, R. Cleary, O. David, K.E. Jablonski*, A.S. Jones, P. Meiman, J. Quinn, E.P. Ryan, M. Schipanski, H. Summers*, and M. Uchanski. (2019). “Connecting Urban Food Plans to the Countryside: Leveraging Denver’s Food Vision to Build Meaningful Rural-Urban Linkages.” Sustainability, 11: 2022.

Clancy, K., A. Bonanno, P. Canning, R. Cleary, Z. Conrad, D. Fleisher, M. Gomez, T. Griffin, R. Lee*, D. Kane, A. Palmer, K. Park, C. Peters, and N. Tichenor. (2017). “Using a Market Basket to Explore Regional Food Systems.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 7(4): 163–178.