In recent years, food manufacturers have been devoting a large portion of their R&D budgets to the development of functional foods. Although functional foods exhibit a significant level of information asymmetry, consumers appear to be increasingly appreciative, recognizing their role in preventing or reducing health risks and/or improving other physiological functions. This paper quantifies the willingness to pay of a representative sample of 600 Italian consumers for a hypothetical yogurt using a web-based stated choice experiment. The willingness to pay for two functional attributes (probiotics and catechin enrichment) was measured using the panel data version of a Random Parameters Logit model. The results show that respondents are willing to pay a premium for a catechin-enriched yogurt (0.38 €/jar), which is well above their willingness to pay for the probiotic attribute (0.21 €/jar). Averaging the individual values across sample sub-groups indicates that the willingness to pay for catechin enrichment may be related
We evaluate the impact of different types of information on participants' willingness-to-pay (WTP) and quantity choices for both beef and soy burger meat. To this end, we conducted a lab experiment to elicit WTP with multiple-price lists and chosen quantities of two products in a basket. Participants were provided with explanatory messages regarding the impact of beef and soy on health and environment before successive rounds of WTP determinations and quantity choices. Results show a weak impact of successive rounds of messages on WTP for both beef and soy, while leading to higher relative variations for chosen quantities. These relative changes in both WTP and quantities are then combined for computing the value of information. Results show a relatively low value of information compared to the expenditure for beef. In the last section of the paper we evaluate the effect of the introduction of a beef burger labeled “Fed without GMO” on WTP and quantity choices. Results underline a weak impact of “Fed without GMO” label on changing participants' preferences.
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