# Using Behavioral Economics Approach to Examine Individual Preferences for Marijuana Products

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2021 · $695,155

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Despite a federal prohibition against marijuana, since 2012, recreational marijuana has been legalized
in 11 states and Washington DC where over a quarter of US population live. Among these jurisdictions, ten
states further opened or planned to open retail markets in near future to adults aged 21 years or older. The
efforts of protecting public health in the new policy regime, however, have been complicated by the lack of
knowledge regarding how individuals make purchase decisions and what regulatory measures would be
effective to reduce problem marijuana use. Particularly, the rapid adoption of novel products and the
coexistence of illegal markets pose unprecedented public health concerns and regulatory challenges. The
overarching goal is to examine the relationships between recreational marijuana regulatory strategies and
individual preferences for marijuana products. We will examine a wide range of policy measures that have
potential to influence individual decisions, including those regulating product characteristics, restricting
promotional features, modifying availability and context, and controlling price. We will innovatively test research
hypotheses using two behavioral economics approaches with distinct yet complementary strengths, namely
stated preferences approach and revealed preferences approach, and integrate them to provide calibrated
estimates. Specifically, we aim: 1) To quantify the relationships of product, promotional, availability, and price
attributes with individual hypothetical choices on marijuana products. 2) To quantify the relationships of
product, promotional, availability, and price policies with individual real-world choices on marijuana products. 3)
To correct hypothetical bias in stated preferences data with revealed preferences data. We will recruit
representative adult samples of never users, former users, and current users of marijuana to complete a series
of web-based surveys with rigorously developed discrete choice experiments on marijuana choices. To
address concerns on hypothetical bias, we will complement these experiments with revealed preferences data
on real-world choices through longitudinal cohort surveys in a subsample of the respondents. Particular
attention will be given to the heterogeneities in policy impacts among never users, former users, and current
users and among current users with medical, recreational, and dual purposes. The project will be the first
rigorous and comprehensive investigation of the impacts of policy-relevant factors on marijuana use decisions
at individual level. It will advance our understanding about the potential effectiveness of marijuana policies on
choices between traditional and novel products in the emerging legal markets. It will also shed light on the
unintended consequences of legal market regulations on demand in the coexisting illegal markets. Overall, the
project has potential to advance the methodological framework for predicting marijuana demand...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10271259
- **Project number:** 5R01DA049730-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Yuyan Shi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $695,155
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10271259

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10271259, Using Behavioral Economics Approach to Examine Individual Preferences for Marijuana Products (5R01DA049730-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10271259. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*