Lauren Chenarides is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. She holds an undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross, where she majored in Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics from Pennsylvania State University, where she graduated in 2017. Dr. Chenarides teaches courses on food and agricultural marketing, data-driven decision making, and agricultural entrepreneurship.
Her research background is in food economics, studying the nexus between food choice, retailer competition, and public policy. Dr. Chenarides’ research focuses on understanding barriers to accessing affordable, healthy foods and the consequences of poor food access on consumer spending, diet, and health; analyzing trends and developments in food retailer competition, market concentration, and marketing strategies; and, examining the impact of entry by non-traditional food retailers on local competition.
Dr. Chenarides is actively involved in scholarly associations, including the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, where she has served as Chair of the Food and Agricultural Marketing and Policy Section, and the American Economic Association. Some of her recent publications can be found in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, and Agribusiness. Dr. Chenarides is a Board Member of the Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics, translating academic research into educational programming for policymakers and stakeholders in the federal administration. (Research Interests: Food security, food access, food policy, empirical IO, data analytics, micro-level data, applied microeconometrics, spatial econometrics)