Dr. Bachir Kassas
Assistant Professor
Bachir Kassas is an Assistant Professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department. His research is focused on applying experimental methods to study individual and consumer behavior. His main areas of interest include individual health-related behavior, consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay for novel product attributes, preference elicitation mechanisms, and prosocial behavior. As part of his research program, Bachir also works on incorporating cutting-edge biometric data including eye-tracking, facial expression analysis, and brain activity, to develop behavioral models that can improve the current understanding of the individual decision-making process.
Bachir earned an M.S. in Economics and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University. During his graduate years, he was involved in the establishment and served as the manager of the Human Behavior Laboratory (HBL). He is currently the co-director of the Economic Experiment Laboratory (EEL) at the University of Florida, which he established as a mobile experimental lab with 22 fully equipped stations that are ready to be deployed to conduct survey and experimental research in the lab and field.
Bachir's recent work has helped improve the existing understanding of individual behavior and choice. He made significant contributions to consumer behavior research by investigating ways that can help enhance the accuracy of the estimates obtained from stated preference methods. He also proposed a unified model of self-control that helped address a longstanding controversy in the literature regarding the underlying mechanism through which initial self-control exertion affects subsequent self-control ability. His research also addresses behavior in social settings, where he analyzed the role of social norms on giving behavior and investigated income and relative return heterogeneities in voluntary contributions mechanisms. Bachir's work is published in reputable field and general interest journals including the journal of economic behavior and organization, applied economics, the journal of behavioral and experimental economics, the journal of agricultural and resource economics, and the journal of choice modeling.
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Research
Research: Consumer Preference
Dr. Bachir Kassas conducts a research program in consumer preferences, where he focuses on experimental and survey studies to elicit consumer valuation and willingness-to-pay for novel product attributes. He also focuses on innovative research designs that can enhance the accuracy of the estimates obtained from stated preference approaches to align research results with real-world behavior.
Research: Health-Related Behavior
Dr. Bachir Kassas conducts a research program that focuses on individual health-related behavior, where he applies laboratory and field experiments to provide insights that can improve the current understanding of individual decisions related to self-control, exercising, and healthy eating.
Research: Prosocial Preferences
Dr. Bachir Kassas conducts a research program that focuses on individual prosocial behavior, where he applies experimental methods to understand the main factors that contribute to altruism and cooperative behavior. He extends the applications of this work to empathy, charitable giving, and public goods.
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Teaching
Graduate Courses:
AEB6817 - Survey Research Methods for Economists
Undergraduate Courses:
AEB3300 - Agricultural Food Marketing
AEB4931 - Advanced Agricultural Microeconomics
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Education
- Ph.D. Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, 2018
- Publications