Organic label as an identifier of environmentally related quality: A consumer choice experiment on beef in Italy

Abstract

This paper uses a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate Italian consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic, conventional and genetically modified (GM)-fed beef, utilizing intrinsic, search cues (price, color and visible fat) and extrinsic, credence cues. Data are gathered from three different locations in northern, central and southern Italy using a sequential Bayesian approach. Results showed that consumers attach higher value to organic meat. WTP for GM-fed beef, which is not yet sold in Italy, is well below current conventional beef prices. Organic beef is attractive to consumers because it is associated with higher animal welfare standards and environment-related issues (food miles and biodiversity preservation). No differences are found in marginal WTP estimates by gender, age, education, being a parent or having a higher level of knowledge about organic production. Ethical/environmental issues (credence cues) appear to be more relevant in explaining variation in WTP for organic beef than ordinary product characteristics (search cues).

Assessing the total economic value of threatened livestock breeds in Italy: Implications for conservation policy

“…The WTP-S model, as shown by Greene and Hensher (2010), is a special case of the G-MNL model, and has recently seen increasing acceptance when the objective of the CE is to obtain welfare estimates (e.g. Scarpa et al, 2008;Hole and Kolstad, 2012;Scarpa et al, 2012;Zanoli et al, 2013). Welfare estimates in a WTP-S model can be obtained at the estimation stage and do not need to be derived through simulations and are therefore more stable (Balcombe et al, 2009).…”

Consumer Choices and Motives for Eco-Labeled Products in China: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Choice Experiment

“…Choice experiments are widely used in food marketing as well as environmental economics studies to elicit respondents' preferences and WTP for goods [13,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. This study applies choice experiments to investigate consumers' preferences for rice.…”

“…We first described rice with a combination of four attributes: brand, eco-labels, geographical origin and price [13,29,31]. Attributes, such as taste, were excluded because consumers were not available prior to consumption.…”

“…It is questionable whether such premiums are associated with health concerns or with health concerns or environmental worries. With regard to organic food in developed countries, some studies have related green consumption to different motives, with environmental attributes playing a dominant role [12,13]. Other studies have concluded that the purchase of such products is primarily for personal health or food safety considerations [5,[14][15][16].…”

Chinese Consumer Quality Perception and Preference of Traditional Sustainable Rice Produced by the Integrated Rice–Fish System

“…In Europe, the value of organic products was about 21.5 billion euros in 2011, which expanded by 9% from last year. Research shows that safer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly branding are the main drivers of consumers' buying of organic food [31][32][33][34]. Consumers' information about the production method can also affect the WTP for organic food [31].…”