Sen Zeng

Ph.D. candidate on the 2025-2026 job market
Department of Economics | Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Cornell University

Fields: Industrial organization; Health economics.

Advisors: Francesca Molinari, Levon Barseghyan, and Colleen Carey.

Additional Reference (RA Supervisor): Donald Kenkel.

E-mail: sz626@cornell.edu

[CV]

Job Market Paper

Stigma, Consideration, or Assortment? Decomposing Demand in the Fukushima Rice Market.
(with Satoru Shimokawa)
Abstract: Consumers often choose under conditions of hard-to-verify quality and noisy beliefs. After salient safety shocks, demand can fall sharply even when objective risk is low. This paper explores the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident in Japan, focusing on demand for rice labeled as originating from Fukushima prefecture. We estimate a structural model of demand and supply with scanner data of Japanese rice products to study the impact of the nuclear accident on Fukushima rice. Our discrete choice demand model incorporates a limited consideration component for the focal brand (Fukushima rice), and we find the rice market exhibits full consideration. We decompose the falling demand into different channels, and we find that consumer perception (stigma) accounts for 90% of the decline in demand of Fukushima rice, and retailer product assortment contributes 10%. A counterfactual policy that provides a 50% price discount to a focal group of Fukushima rice and blended rice can potentially offset stigma and recover the demand.

Working Papers / Work in Progress

Aggregate Discrete Choice Demand Models with Unobserved Choice Sets

Quantifying Internalities: With an Application to Tobacco Regulations
(with Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Hua Wang)

Attention and Consideration in Discrete Choice Experiments
(with Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Hua Wang)

The Impact of Tobacco Regulations on Smoking and Vaping
Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Grace Phillips, Revathy Suryanarayana, Hua Wang, Sen Zeng
R & R @ Southern Economic Journal
[PDF][Online Appendix][NBER WP][Media: VoxEU]

Publications

Consumer Preferences for Cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products in Japan: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment
Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Grace Phillips, Revathy Suryanarayana, Hua Wang, Sen Zeng. (2025)
Applied Economics
[PDF][Online Appendix][NBER WP]

Understanding the Demand-Side of an Illegal Market: A Case Study of the Prohibition of Menthol Cigarettes
Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Grace Phillips, Revathy Suryanarayana, Hua Wang, Sen Zeng. (2025)
Health Economics
[PDF][Online Appendix][NBER WP][Media: CATO | Cornell Chronicle][Data and Code]

Just What the Doctor Ordered? The Benefits and Costs of E-Cigarette Regulation in Australia
Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Grace Phillips, Revathy Suryanarayana, Hua Wang, Sen Zeng. (2024)
Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics
[PDF][NBER WP][Data and Code]

The Effect of Health Information on Smoking Intensity: Does Addiction Matter?
Sen Zeng, Satoru Shimokawa. (2019)
Applied Economics

Partial Smoking Ban and Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Japan
Sen Zeng, Haruko Noguchi, Satoru Shimokawa. (2019)
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health