A multi‐country study on consumers' valuation for child‐labor‐free chocolate: Implications for child labor in cocoa production

Abstract

Child labor is a preeminent issue of our time. Using a discrete choice experiment, we surveyed consumers in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to assess their willingness to pay (WTP) for chocolate labeled as “child‐labor‐free” based on two levels of child labor and two information sets (short and long). Our results indicate that when respondents are shown a definition clarifying the meaning of the child‐labor‐free logo, their WTP in all countries exceeds the 2.81% price premium farmers need to eliminate hazardous forms of child labor. Important implications for child labor in cocoa production are discussed. JEL CLASSIFICATION C25, J28, J43, J80, Q18

Information effects in discrete choice experiments: Does type of delivery matter for valuation estimates and attribute nonattendance?

“…To capture the error component, the parameter of the buy option is set to be normally distributed in addition to the attributes' parameters. The standard deviation of the buy option represents the error component in this approach (Luckstead, Snell, et al, 2022) $$${U}_{\mathrm{ins}}={\beta }_{0}{\mathrm{Buy}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{1n}{\mathrm{Wage}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{2n}{\mathrm{Length}3}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{3n}{\mathrm{Length}6}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{4n}{\mathrm{Length}9}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{5n}{\mathrm{Housing}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{6n}{\mathrm{Insure}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{7n}{\mathrm{Food}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+{\beta }_{8n}{\mathrm{Transport}}_{\mathrm{ins}}+\phantom{\rule{}{0ex}}{\beta }_{9n}{(\mathrm{Housing}}_{\mathrm{ins}}\times {\mathrm{Insure}}_{\mathrm{ins}})+{{\beta }_{10n}(\mathrm{Food}}_{\mathrm{ins}}\times {\mathrm{Transport}}_{\mathrm{ins}})+{\varepsilon }_{\mathrm{ins}}.$$$…”

Wine consumers' demand for social sustainability labeling: Evidence for the fair labor claim

“…One of their main advantages is that they allow to elicit the value of both private and public goods capturing the trade‐offs between multiple products' attributes. For this reason, they have been extensively applied in food research (Lin et al, 2020; Luckstead et al, 2021; Syrengelas et al, 2018), as well as studies on wine preferences (Bazzani et al, 2020; Boncinelli et al, 2019; Ghvanidze et al, 2017; Lim & Reed, 2020; Mueller Loose, 2013; Tait et al, 2019).…”

Cacao value chains and credence attributes: lessons from Ecuador

“…3. A recent study estimated that the willingness to pay for chocolate labeled as “child-labor-free” in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, exceeds the 2.81% price premium farmers need to eliminate hazardous forms of child labor in cacao producing countries in Africa (Luckstead et al. , 2021).…”