Sofia Berto Villas-Boas

Sofia Berto Villas-Boas

Class of 1934 Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor in Agricultural Economics

Email: sberto@berkeley.edu

U California, Berkeley - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, 223 University Hall, CA 94720-3310

SIEPR- Giannini Data Center

Affiliate The Gilbert Center Link

MENTORING STUDENTS

SPUR .

Breakthroughs Article Recycling Centers project .

PUBLICATIONS

Google Scholar Page .

" Identification of Supply Models of Manufacturer and Retailer Oligopoly Pricing,", Economics Letters, 90, N. 1, 132-140 , Link , 2006, CUDARE Working Paper 993 , joint with Rebecca Hellerstein.

"Effects of Sales on Brand Loyalty," Journal of agricultural & Food Industrial Organization: Link , Vol 4: No.1, Article 5, 2006, CUDARE Working Paper 1011,joint with Rui Huang and Jeffrey Perloff.

"An Introduction to Auctions," Journal of Industrial Organization Education, Link, Issue 1, Vol 1, art 5, 2006. .

"Got Organic Milk? Consumer Valuations of Milk Labels after the Implementation of the USDA Organic Seal", Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization: Link , Vol 5: No. 1, Art 4, 2007, and CUDARE Working Paper 1024, joint with Kristin Kiesel.

"Vertical Relationships Between Manufacturers and Retailers: Inference With L imited Data," The Review of Economic Studies, 2007, Vol. 74, 2, pp. 625-652. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com Link . Supplement: Simple 2 by 2 Model .

"Reformulating Competition?: Gasoline Content Regulation and Wholesale Gasoline Prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 55 (1) : 1-19, 2008, joint with Jen Brown, Justine Hastings and Erin Mansur, Link JEEM Science Direct , CUDARE Working Paper 1010 , JEEM Link .

"Using Retail Scanner Data for Upstream Merger Analysis" , Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 3 (4): 689-715,Link JCLE article , CUDARE Working Paper 1030 , 2007 .

"Sales: Tests of Theories on Causality and Timing " , International Journal of Industrial Organization, 26 (6): 1257-1273. joint with Peter Berck, Jen Brown and Jeffrey Perloff, CUDARE Working Paper 1031 , 2008 .

"Learning, Forgetting and Sales" , CUDARE Working Paper 1020 , joint with J. Miguel Villas-Boas, Management Science, 54 (11): 1951-1960, Link November 2008.

"An Empirical Investigation of the Welfare Effects of Banning Wholesale Price Discrimination ," CUDARE Working Paper 1017 , RAND Journal of Economics,40 (1): 20-45, 2009, Online Appendix .

"A Larger Slice or a Larger Pie? An Empirical Investigation of Bargaining Power in the Distribution Channel ", joint with Michaela Draganska and Daniel Klapper,Marketing Science, 29 (1):57-74 2010, CUDARE Working Paper 1046.

"Consumer and Market Responses to Mad-Cow Disease " , CUDARE Working Paper 1023 , joint with Wolfram Schlenker, 2009. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 91 (4): 1140-1152, Online Appendix , Data used are stored at the SIEPR-Giannini Data Center .

Patterns of Pass-through of Commodity Price Shocks to Retail Prices , joint with P. Berck, E Leiptag, and Alex Solis, CUDARE Working paper 1082, 2009, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 91 (5):1456-1461, Papers and Proceedings.

"Outsourcing and Pass-Through" joint with Rebecca Hellerstein, 2010, Journal of International Economics, 81: 170-183, CUDARE Working Paper 1016 , 2009, NY Fed, Staff Report 251 .

"Revisiting the Income Effect: Gasoline Prices and Grocery Purchases," , joint with Dora Gicheva and Justine Hastings, 2010, American Economic Review, P& P,Vol. 100 (May 2010) Issue 2: 480-484 ,CUDARE Working Paper 1044 , NBER Working paper 13614 , 2007 , Wall Street Journal Economics Blog, Dec 3 2007 .

Expert Opinion and the Demand for Experience Goods: An Experimental Approach, joint with James Hilger and Greg Rafert, 2011, Review of Economics and Statistics, 93 (4): 1289-1296, CUDARE Working paper 1049, 2010.
Tracking the LIBOR Rate, joint with George Judge and Romy Abrantes-Metz, 2011. Applied Economics Letters, 18 (10):893-899Link, CUDARE Working Paper 1108 .

" Short on shots: Can calls on self-restraint be effective in managing the scarcity of flu vaccines, and what do they reveal about behavior , joint with Alain deJanvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2010 Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 76: 209-224 CUDARE Working PAper 1013.

"Can information costs affect consumer choice? Nutritional labels in a supermarket experiment," joint with Kristin Kiesel, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 31 (2013): 153-163. Link , CUDARE Working Paper 1060 , 2010.

"Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices ," joint with Kristin Kiesel and Jill McCluskey, Annual Review of Resource Economics, vol3: 141-158, 2011, Link

Are consumers Color Blind? An Empirical Investigation of a Traffic Light Advisory for Sustainable Seafood, joint with Eric Hallstein, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 66 (2013) 52-71, Link to published paper

Empirical Evidence on the Role of Non Linear Wholesale Pricing and Vertical Restraints on Cost Pass-Through, joint with Celine Bonnet and Pierre Dubois, CUDARE Working paper 1089 , 2009, CEPR link 2010 .Review of Economics and Statistics, May 2013, 95(2): 500-515 Link .

"An Information Theoretic Approach To Understanding The Micro Foundations of Macro Processes.", Judge, G. and S. B. Villas-Boas, Theoretical Economics Letters, Vol. 3 (1), 2013. Link available here .

"Big Data in Firms and Economic Research," Villas-Boas, S. B., 2014.Applied Economics and Finance, Vol. 1 (1): 67-72.

"A Note on the Tripple Difference in Economic Models.", Berck, P. and S. B. Villas-Boas, Applied Economics Letters, 2015. Link available here .

"Bans vs. Fees: Disposable Carryout Bag Policies and Bag Usage", Taylor, R. and S. B. Villas-Boas,2015. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (2016) volume 38, number 2, pp. 351 - 372, Link . Link to SF Chronicle Article featuring Becca Taylor .

"Buyer Power through Producer Differentiation,", joint with Claire Chambolle, 2015, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Volume 43, November 2015, Pages 56-65 Link .

"Store Choices of Poor Households,", joint with Rebecca Taylor, 2016, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Link ,98(2): 513 - 532; doi: 10.1093/ajae/aaw009 .

"Is Benford's Law a Universal Behavioral Theory?, joint Jenny Fu and George Judge, 2015, Econometrics, 2015, 3 698-708; doi:10.3390/econometrics3040698, Link .

"An Analysis of Asymmetric Consumer Price Responses and Asymmetric Cost Pass-Throught in the French Coffee Market,, 2016. Bonnet, C. and S. B. Villas-Boas, TRANSFOP Working paper N. 10, 2013." European Review of Agricultural Economics, Volume 43, Issue 5, December: 781-804. Link first published online March 2, 2016 doi:10.1093/erae/jbw001 .

"Measuring Consumer Responses to a Bottled Water Tax Policy.", Berck, P., J. Moe-Lange, A. Stevens, and S. B. Villas-Boas, 2016, Working Paper Link, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 98 (4): 981 - 996; Link . LSE Blog .

Allain , M-L, C. Chambolle, S. Turolla, and S. B. Villas-Boas, "The impact of Retail Mergers on Food Prices: Evidence from France," Link to CUDARE working paper., Journal of Industrial Economics, Volume 65, Issue 3, September:469 - 509. DOI: 10.1111/joie.12153

Heredia-Colaco, V., R. C. Vale, S. B. Villas-Boas "Does Fair Trade Breed Contempt? A Cross-Country Examination on the Moderating Role of Brand Familiarity and Consumer Expertise on Product Evaluation.," Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Ethics, (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3572-9.

Villas-Boas, S. B., Jenny Fu, G. Judge. 2015."Benford's Law and the First Significant Digit Distribution of Economic Behavioral Micro Data," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 486 (2017) 711 - 719, Link .

Fu, Q., Villas-Boas, S. B., and G. Judge. 2018."Does China Income FSDs follow Benford? A Comparison between Chinese Income First Significant Digit Distribution with Benford Distribution," China Economic Journal. (2018) 1-19, Link .

"Safe or Not? Consumer Responses to Recalls with Traceability", Toledo, C. and S. B. Villas-Boas, 2019 Link , Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, Volume41, Issue3: 519-541.

Hallstein , E., J. Hilger, A. Stevens, and S. B. Villas-Boas, 2018. "Estimating Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Environmental Sustainability Labeling." CUDARE Working Paper Environment and Resource Economics, 73: 307-332. Publication Link .

"Entropy based European income distributions and inequality measures ." Sofia B. Villas-Boas, George Judge, Jenny Fu, 2019, Physica A: Volume 514, 15 January 2019, Pages 686-698 .

"Food Markets' Structural Empirical Analysis: A Review of Methods and Topics," Link . Celine Bonnet, Carly Trachtman, Molly Van Dop, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2019. European Review of Agricultural Economics, (2): 819–847 .

"Effects of Peer Comparisons on Low-Promotability Tasks: Evidence from a University Field Experiment." Sofia B. Villas-Boas, E. Deakin, B. Taylor, 2019, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link to publication , and Link to Working Paper , Volume 158:351-366.

"Entropy Based China Income Distributions and Inequality Measures." Sofia B. Villas-Boas, Q. Fu, G. Judge, 2019,China Economic Journal RCEJ. 2019 Link to publication , Volume 12, Issue 3: 352-368.

Krovetz, H., R. Taylor, and S. B. Villas-Boas, 2019. ``Willingness to Pay for Low Water Footprint Foods during Drought,'' in Agricultural Productivity and Producer Behavior, Wolfram Schlenker ed., NBER, Chapter 8, The University of Chicago Press, Publication Link and SSRN link, , and NBER working paper , Link CUDARE working paper.

Becca Taylor, Scott Kaplan, Sofia Villas-Boas, and Kevin Jung, "Soda Wars." ,2019. Economic Inquiry. Vol 57, (3), July: 1480-1496 .

Villas-Boas, S., K. Kiesel, J. Berning, H. Chouinard, J. McCluskey, 2020. "Consumer and Strategic Firm Response to Nutrition Shelf Labels," American Journal of Agricultural Economics,, 102 (2): 458-47. Working Paper Link .

Villas-Boas, S. B., C. Bonnet, and J Hilger, 2020. ``Reduced Form Evidence on Belief Updating Under Asymmetric Information - Consumers' Response to Wine Expert Opinions,'' European Review of Agricultural Economics, Link to Publication Vol 47 (5), December 2020: Pages 1668-1696, Working Paper Link .

Bonnet, C., J. Hilger, S. B. Villas-Boas, 2021. "Random Utility Models, Wine, and Experts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 103 (2), March: Pages 663 - 681. Publication Link , Working Paper Link .

Peter Berck, Marshall Blundell, Gabriel Englander, Samantha Gold, Shelley He, Janet Horsager, Scott Kaplan, Molly Sears, Andrew Stevens, Carly Trachtman, Rebecca Taylor, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2021. "Recycling Policies, Behavior and Convenience: Survey Evidence from the CalRecycle Program." Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, Vol 43 (2), June 2021: Pages 641-658. Publication Link .

Campbell, Nica, Jackie Copfer, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2022. "Preferences for Sustainability and Supply Chain Essential Worker Conditions: Survey Evidence during COVID-19" Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, Vol 44 (4): December 2022, Pages 1637-1659. Link to Publication , and CUDARE Working Paper , Link Online Appendix, Press Release, Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, Link.

Sears, J., J. Miguel Villas-Boas,Vasco Villas-Boas, Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2022. "Are We #StayingHome to Flatten the Curve?" CUDARE Working Paper , Link Online Appendix, Link to SSRN Working Paper, American Journal of Health Economics , 9(1):72--95. Policy Take Away.

Carrera, Mariana P., S. B. Villas-Boas, 2023. "Generic aversion and observational learning in the over-the-counter drug market ." American Economic Journal - Applied, 15 ( 3) JULY: 380--410, Link to Pub , Link to Working Paper

White, J., Scott Kaplan, Sanjay Basu, Kristine A. Madsen, Dean Schillinger, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2023. ''Impact and cost-effectiveness of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in Oakland, 2015-2019.'' PLOS Medicine, 20(4): e1004212 (2023), Link .

Neuhofer, Zachary T., Lusk, Jayson L., and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2023. ''Can a Sustainability Facts Label Reduce the Halo Surrounding Organic Labels?'' Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 1-- 31. Link

Englander, G., A. W. Stevens, R. L.C. Taylor, and S. B. Villas-Boas. ``The impact of ecolabels and green taxes on market outcomes,'' in Blue Planet Law , Maria da Gloria Garcia e Antonio Cortes editors, Springer Nature Springer-Verlag GmbH, Germany, 2023.

Villas-Boas, S. B., S. A. Kaplan, J. White, R. Hsia, 2023. ''Trends in depression risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.'' PLOS ONE, Link.

Villas-Boas, S. B., S. A. Kaplan, J. White, R. Hsia, 2023. ''Patterns of US Mental Health-Related Emergency Department Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic.'' JAMA Network Open., Link Commentary .

Braun, Mark and Villas-Boas, Sofia. 2023 "Pollution and Fatal Traffic Accidents in California." Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, March, 46(1): 360--385 Link to Paper .

Villas-Boas, S.B., S. Kaplan, J. White, R. Y. Hsia. 2023. "Adolescent Total and Mental Health-Related Emergency Department Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic." JAMA Network Open, 2023;6(10):e233646, Link to Publication.

Scott Kaplan, Justin White, Sanjay Basu, Kristine Madsen, Dean Schillinger, and Sofia B. Villas Boas. 2024. "The impact of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes on purchased volume, price pass-through, and cross-border shopping: evidence from a multi-city synthetic control approach". JAMA Health Forum, 5(1), Link to Media Coverage .

Berck, Peter; Sears, Molly; Taylor, Rebecca; Trachtman, Carly ; Villas-Boas, Sofia. 2024. "Reduce, Reuse, Redeem: Deposit-Refund Recycling Programs in the Presence of Alternatives." Ecological Economics Volume 217, March 2024, 108080, Link to Publication..

Altman E, Schillinger D, Villas-Boas S, Schmidt L, Falbe J, Madsen K. 2025. ``De-normalizing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption: Effects of Tax Measures on Social Norms and Attitudes in the California Bay Area.'' BMC Public Health, Article number: 3263 .

REPORTS:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2020). A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25657. NAS Panel Report Link

IN THE NEWS:

JAMA Health Forum Paper, US News , CNN , and NPR are among the many media sources reporting on the findings of the research. See also HERE .
Daily Cal , SF Chronicle and US World News & World Report and NBC Bay Area News, April 18, 2023 , about PLOS Medicine Paper ``Impact Soda Taxes in Oakland.''

COVID-19 Mobility and Social Distancing Changes in the US and Reopening Evidence, June 15, 2020, Paper Brief , and CUDARE Working Paper, NABE Talk .
Breakthrough Soda Wars piece

Economist on Libor Paper

Chicago Booth Review on Generic Purchases Paper.

Water Tax Blog LSE

Seafood NOAA News

Sea Grant News piece

RESEARCH UNDER SUBMISSION

Cardinali, Becky; Lusher, Lester ; Taylor, Rebecca; Villas-Boas, Sofia. "Stigma Goods, Self-Checkout Adoption, and Changes in Purchasing Decisions." CUDARE Working Paper

James Sears, Sofia B. Villas-Boas, Molly Sears, Carly Trachtman, Andrew W. Stevens, and Linlin Fan, 2025. ``Deniers and Compliers: Unpacking the Heterogeneous Effectiveness of U.S. Stay-at-Home Mandates During the COVID-19 Pandemic,'' working paper.

Fu, Q. , Z. Fang, Sofia B. Villas-Boas, and George Judge, " An Investigation of the Quality of Air Data in Beijing ", Link.

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

Mariana Carrera and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, ``Consumer Observational Learning among Brands and Generics considering Strategic Supply in the Pain OTC Category''.

Madsen, K., E. Altman , and S. B. Villas-Boas.2023. ``Survey Evidence on Sweet and sugared Beverage (SSB) Consumption in the presence of SSB taxes.''

Kroskrity, E. and S. B. Villas-Boas. 2023. ``Examining the Impact the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 using a Cohort Empirical Approach.''

Kroskrity, E. and S. B. Villas-Boas. 2022. `` Native American Policies and Socioeconomic Well-Being: Evidence from the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.''

Javier, K. and S. B. Villas-Boas. 2023. Patterns of Purchases and Carbon Footprint.''

Kiesel, K., L. Smialkova, S. B. Villas-Boas, Michael L. Anderson, "Empowering through Taste and Food Education: The Impact of a Schoolbased Intervention on Students Food Preferences", Link

Rausser, G., and S. B. Villas-Boas, ``Demand for Search Engines and Implied Firm Behavior''.

Kyle Emerick, Rebecca L. Taylor, Timothy Park, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, "The Foreclosure Crisis and Consumer Expenditures: Evidence from over 2 Billion Grocery Transactions".

Jessica Rider, Peter Berck, and Sofia B. Villas-Boa, "Eating Healthy in Lean Times- The Relationship between Unemployment and Grocery Purchasing Patterns ".

Hamilton, S., E. Ligon, D. Sunding, and S. B. Villas-Boas,``The Impact of AB32 on the Competitiveness of California Food Processing Industries''

Duran-Micco, Elisa, David McLaughlin, Jeffrey M. Perloff, Tiffany Shih, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2020. "Does Greater Variete Increase or Decrease Sales? Evidence from a Super Market Chain Quasi-Experiment".

The Sideways Effects of Wine, joint with Frederico Finan.

Identification of Pass-Through, joint with Rebecca Hellerstein.

Cross-Category Effects, Multimarket Contact and Strategic Pricing

Environmental Regulation and Arbitrage in Wholesale Gasoline, joint with Justine Hastings.

Last updated 2025-2026