Industry-Funded Research and Bias in Food Science

Abstract

Is industry-funded scientific research likely to be biased towards finding positive results? Is industry more likely to work on topics with likely positive outcomes? Using publication-level data and focusing on food groups that are typically considered healthy, I evaluate each article’s abstract using crowdsourcing tools. I find little evidence to support selection on topics with positive outcomes, but industry is less likely to work on topics classified as unrelated to health. Conditional on a topic, I find that industry-funded research is 3.2% more positive compared to non-industry funded research with grains that receive heavier funding responsible for most of the effect. Industry-funded research is also more likely to receive a mention in certain industry newsletters. Coupled with firm incentives to use science to further their marketing efforts, such increased trade press coverage might play a role in shaping consumers’ opinions on what is healthy.

Keywords: empirical IO, consumer protection, industry funding, bias in science

JEL Classification: L20, M31, O31