Montserrat Costa-Font

Montserrat (Montse, or Dr Costa-Font)  holds a PhD in Food Economics and Marketing (Barcelona, UPC, 2009).She earned a Masters in Science (MSc Econ) degree on Environmental Economics and Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, 2006). Before that she previously earned both graduate and undergraduate degrees in Agriculture Engineering and Food Industry Engineering both from the University of Lleida (2001, 2004). She has specialised in the analysis of food consumption and the organisation of food industries.

Montse worked previously at main research centre for food research in Barcelona CREDA (Barcelona) as a Research Fellow. Previously she taught food economics and marketing as a teaching fellow and then lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the  Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. Simultaneously she was a part time tutor for the Spanish distance learning university (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia) teaching several Environmental science courses.

Her research falls in the area of food marketing broadly speaking. Her current research interests are at the intersection of food economics, behavioural science and environmental policy. More specifically, she has published major work on the economic and psychosocial valuation of genetically modified food,  food behaviour and decision making of sustainable food consumption. The latter is an area an area where she has co-supervised two PhD theses.

Currently Montserrat is working on several projects examining the organisation of the food supply chain in emerging markets with a special attention to environmental effects of food production, sensory issues on consumers’ purchase and health effects of food choices.

• AVITIA, J., COSTA-FONT M., GIL, J., LUSK, J.L. (2015) Relative importance of price in forming individuals' decisions toward sustainable food: a calibrated auction-conjoint experiment. Food quality and preference, 41, 1-11.
• COSTA-FONT, M. (2013) Understanding Food Scares: The Role of Ambiguity Aversion and Analogical Reasoning. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal. Volume 19, issue 3, pages 661-673.
• COSTA-FONT, M. and Gil, J. M. (2012), Metta-attitudes and the local formation of consumer judgements towards Genetically Modified (GM) food. British food Journal. Volume 114, issue, 10, pp 1463 – 1485.
• COSTA-FONT M, TRANTER R.B., GIL J.M. 2012. « Consumers' Opinions and Attitudes Towards Co-existence of GM and Non-GM Food Products”. In: Genetically Modified and Non-Genetically Modified Food Supply Chains: Co-Existence and Traceability. Editor(s): Yves Bertheau. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• COSTA-FONT, M., GIL, J.M., (2009). Structural equation modeling of consumer acceptance of genetically modified (GM) food in the Mediterranean Europe: A cross country study. Food Quality and Preference, 20: 399-409.
• COSTA-FONT, M., GIL, J.M., TRAILL, B. (2008). Consumer acceptance, valuation of and attitudes towards Genetically Modified Food: review and implications for food policy. Food Policy, 33(2): 99-111.