Professor Seda Erdem

Professor

Economics University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Seda Erdem

Contact details

About me

Seda Erdem is Professor of Applied Economics and Head of the Economics Division at Stirling Business School, University of Stirling. She is also an active member of the Stirling Behavioural Science Centre, where her research advances the understanding of consumer behaviour, decision-making processes, and preference elicitation. Combining tools from economics and behavioural science, her work addresses real-world challenges in food and health economics, marketing and public policy, with a strong emphasis on methodological innovation.

Professor Erdem holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester, where her thesis applied stated preference techniques to analyse consumer food choices and decisionmaking. She obtained her MSc in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA), specialising in industrial organisation, food safety economics, and decision-making models.

Before joining Stirling, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of York, working within an interdisciplinary team to study public preferences for healthcare innovations. Upon obtaining a faculty position at Stirling, her research has focussed on how individuals form preferences and make decisions in a broad spectrum of contexts, ranging from sustainable food consumption to health interventions. A key focus of her work is improving survey design and methodological rigour in behavioural and applied economics.

Beyond academia, Professor Erdem served on the Social Science Research Committee of the UK Food Standards Agency, providing expertise to shape evidence-based food policies over 6 years. Her commitment to bridging research and policy ensures her work has direct societal impact.

She welcomes collaborations and PhD supervision in behavioural economics, consumer choice and behaviour, and applied preference analysis. Prospective students and partners are encouraged to contact her for discussions on shared research interests.

Seda Erdem’s research lies at the intersection of applied microeconomics, public health economics, behavioural economics, and food and resource economics. She focuses on consumer choice behaviour, decision-making, and preference elicitation in areas such as health, food, and marketing. Her work also explores how consumers perceive risk, their trust in institutions, notions of responsibility around food safety, and the development of effective risk communication strategies.

She has a particular interest in the methodological and econometric aspects of discrete choice experiments and best-worst scaling, with attention to issues like preference heterogeneity and decision heuristics (e.g., attribute non-attendance, elimination-by-aspects). She is also actively engaged in research on survey design and implementation.

For more details, including publications and presentations, visit www.sedaerdem.com or follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @erdem_econ.

Award

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) CLAHRC Research Dissemination Fund, UK .

National Institute for Health Research CLAHRC Research Capability Fund

Investigates the role of innovative preference elicitation in the arena of primary care and clinical commissioning.

Nominated for Teacher of the Year RATE Awards

Feedback from students: "1. Passion for teaching expressed in their extra effort in ensuring points are patiently and more thoroughly explained 2. Very effective in communication expressed in their ability to digestive complex concepts to the understanding of all; encourages student participation 3. Committed to students: always ready to reply mails and converse with students on any issues with their studies 4. Offers very helpful and excellent feedback"

Best PechaKucha Presentation

SIRE Activity Grant
Scottish Institute for Research in Economics

SIRE Early Career Engagement Grant
Scottish Institute for Research in Economics

Stirling Management School's Seed Fund

Divisional / Faculty Contribution

Divisional Research Coordinator

Postgraduate Research Director

Head of Division

Examining

External Examiner for PhD Theses

Professional Career

Expert Member of the Social Science Advisory Committee of the UK’s Food Standards Agency

Supervision of Research Assistants

Supervisor for research assistants

University Contribution

Member of General University Ethics Panel

Research projects (5)

Exploring and quantifying preferences towards self-management support interventions: a mixed methods survey among individuals with long term health conditions
PI: Professor Seda Erdem
Funded by: The Health Foundation
–

Pregnant Women, risks associated with delivery in remote and rural hospitals: designing qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and analysing data
PI: Professor Seda Erdem
Funded by: NHS Highland
–

Best Worst Scaling Methods
PI: Professor Seda Erdem
Funded by: University of Aberdeen
–

A feasibility study on the use of nutrition labelling using an integrated approach in real-world setting
PI: Professor Seda Erdem
Funded by: Scottish Funding Council
–

Exploring and quantifying preferences towards self-management support interventions: a mixed-methods survey among individuals with long term health conditions
PI: Professor Seda Erdem
Funded by: The Health Foundation
–

Outputs (27)

Article

Building towards One Health: A Transdisciplinary Autoethnographic Approach to Understanding Perceptions of Sustainable Aquatic Foods in Vietnam

Li S, Ang SY, Hunter AM, Erdem S, Bostock J, Da CT, Nguyen NT, Moss A, Hope W, Howie C, Newton R, Casteleiro MA & Little D (2024) Building towards One Health: A Transdisciplinary Autoethnographic Approach to Understanding Perceptions of Sustainable Aquatic Foods in Vietnam. Sustainability, 16 (24), pp. 1-23, Art. No.: 10865. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/24/10865; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162410865

Article

Using discrete choice experiments to elicit preferences for digital wearable health technology for self-management of chronic kidney disease

Gc VS, Iglesias CP, Erdem S, Hassan L, Peek N & Manca A (2022) Using discrete choice experiments to elicit preferences for digital wearable health technology for self-management of chronic kidney disease. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 38 (1), Art. No.: e77. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266462322003233

Conference Paper (unpublished)

Eliciting Trust in Information Sources for Nanotechnology

Erdem S (2016) Eliciting Trust in Information Sources for Nanotechnology. The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting 2016, Boston, USA, 31.07.2016-02.08.2019. https://www.aaea.org/meetings/2016-aaea-annual-meeting/

Conference Paper (unpublished)

The Effect of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling on Consumers’ Food Choices and Decision-Making: Merging Discrete Choice Experiments with Eye-Tracking

Erdem S (2016) The Effect of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling on Consumers’ Food Choices and Decision-Making: Merging Discrete Choice Experiments with Eye-Tracking. The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting 2016, Boston, USA, 31.07.2016-02.08.2016. https://www.aaea.org/meetings/2016-aaea-annual-meeting/

Teaching

I have taught a number of economics modules, such as Statistics and Survey Measurement and Analysis to masters students.

Teaching

Lecturing on a number of UG and TPG courses

Research programmes

Research centres/groups

Research themes