Ethical claims and labelling: An analysis of consumers' beliefs and choice behaviours

Abstract

Although consumers' growing interest in ethical consumption has been well-documented, their understanding of specific claims, and the link between their stated concerns and behaviour, has not. Using a framework from systematic-heuristic and behaviour modification theory, this study explored consumers' understanding of varied ethical claims and a specific eco-label, and then estimated the effect these stimuli had on their choice behaviours. In-depth interviews revealed a strong interest in environmental and social attributes but considerable scepticism about specific claims. However, a choice modelling experiment found ethical attributes nevertheless influenced respondents' choices. Two distinct clusters whose views and choice behaviours differed markedly existed: one was primarily price-driven and the other more responsive to specific claims. Discrepancies between the qualitative and quantitative studies appear attributable to differences in information processing; many consumers respond strongly to heuristics, even though they believe themselves sceptical of the claims these communicate. The findings raise important policy questions about the scientific basis of many ethical claims, since consumers were strongly influenced by these, despite their views to the contrary.     

Volatility,agricultural risk,and household poverty: micro‐evidence from randomized control trials

Households in developing countries are often highly exposed to risk and despite households’ risk strategies negative shocks often result in substantial welfare losses. Given the possibility that weather risks in particular might be further increasing, there is renewed policy attention on improving households’ risk management strategies. This article provides an overview of insights learned from recent randomized control trials on predictions coming out of the theoretical literature on households’ ex ante risk management. It reveals new puzzles and questions regarding households’ inter‐temporal decision making under risk, and draws lessons for effective policy design.     

定西节水型农业经济模式研究

该文针对黄土高原半干旱节水型区域的典型———甘肃省定西市农村发展沼气"三料"俱缺的现状,将生态系统的基本原理运用到农业生产实际中去,根据生态系统内物质循环和能量转化的规律,利用生物之间的生态关系,采用农业循环经济模式的关键技术,以沼气发酵生产为纽带核心,把种植、养殖联结起来,充分利用节水型区域的雨水集流,建立起"种草+养畜+水窖+沼气+太阳灶+高效农业"能源生态型良性循环体系,对定西不同区域条件下以沼气为纽带的生态型能源农业经济模式进行试验示范,开展对"三沼"综合利用的研究和推广,从而达到干旱半干旱节水型区域农村庭园经济高效化、农业生产无害化、农村废物资源化、生活用能再生化,以获得显著的经济效益、生态效益和社会效益。     

Consumer preferences for sustainable production methods in apple purchasing behaviour: a non‐hypothetical choice experiment

Increasing concern for potential risks on human health related to the overuse of chemicals in farming has promoted the research of alternative production methods. This paper contributes to the current literature by presenting a non‐hypothetical choice experiment study that investigates apple consumers' preferences for alternative production systems moving from a conventional to organic production, passing through an integrated pest management and an innovative technique that uses biocontrol agents. Other investigated attributes are appearance, origin and low greenhouse gas emission practices. The non‐hypothetical choice experiment was carried out in supermarkets by asking respondents to pay out of their own pocket for the chosen product. Most of interviewed people stated to have cut‐off values in mind when purchasing apples and their choices have been modelled according to the Swait soft cut‐off approach. Non‐compensatory model estimations confirm previous evidence that ignoring thresholds in data sets that contain them leads to significant errors in terms of willingness to pay. Results suggest that respondents, besides preferring organic production, seem to not perceive the potential benefits of other sustainable production methods.     

Preferences of Scotch malt whisky consumers for changes in pesticide use and origin of barley

In a case study related to Scotch malt whisky production, this study analyses consumers’ perceptions and preferences regarding two aspects that have emerged in the debate on sustainable production and consumption, and on environmentally responsible food choice, namely (i) the use of pesticides in agriculture, and (ii) the provenance of food ingredients. We carried out a choice experiment to investigate preferences and estimate Willingness to Pay of Scotch malt whisky consumers for pesticide use restrictions and the potential impact on the production of one of its essential ingredients, barley. Using latent class models, we find that about half of the respondents are non-demanders with respect to both attributes, and only a third of the sample population are willing to pay for further pesticide restrictions. Demand for more environmentally responsible production of Scotch malt whisky is therefore limited, indicating that in the case of Scotch malt whisky, consumers are not likely to be key to driving sustainable production. With respect to barley provenance, being able to claim a 100% Scottish product could be a plausible commercial option for some producers to pursue in a competitive market. Methodologically, the scale-adjusted latent class model proved to be successful in uncovering preference heterogeneity and its sources, in including non-demanders in the analysis and in accounting for differences in scale amongst respondents.     

两岸综合实验区发展模式与路径选择

两岸综合实验区是实现两岸全面对接的重要平台,也是构建两岸关系和平发展框架的"试验田"。本文基于环境—模式—路径的研究分析框架,对两岸综合实验区发展进行一般性分析。当前,两岸综合实验区开发开放面临有利的国内外环境和较好的现实条件,可以在两岸特殊的体制框架下探索地方政府主导、全面对接、共同管理的两岸合作发展模式。同时,本文也认为,两岸经济自由通商、社会融合发展、文化深度交流和政治互信增强是两岸综合实验区发展的目标,能否顺利实现这些目标的关键在于管理机制创新,也就是要构建中央和地方组织协调体系和两岸共同管理体系。此外,国家对两岸综合实验区发展既要出台针对性强的配套支持政策体系,又要加强顶层设计、统筹规划和建立机制,谨防各地盲目设立两岸综合实验区,搞低水平重复建设。     

Computerizing audit studies

This paper briefly discusses the history, benefits, and shortcomings of traditional audit field experiments to study market discrimination. Specifically it identifies template bias and experimenter bias as major concerns in the traditional audit method and demonstrates through an empirical example that computerization of a resume or correspondence audit can efficiently increase sample size and greatly mitigate these concerns. Finally, it presents a useful meta-tool that future researchers can use to create their own resume audits.     

Does irritation induced by charitable direct mailings reduce donations?

Charities rely mainly on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donors. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. This might harm the revenues charities receive from their mailing activities. Moreover, target selection by charities likely results in many mailings being sent to the best donors, and hence they might become most irritated. As such, irritation with direct mailings could well be endogenously determined. To ensure exogenous variation in irritation, we performed a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly, this irritation affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior.     

Do expert reviews affect the decision to see motion pictures in movie theatres? An experimental approach

The positive correlation between favourable expert reviews and the economic success of motion pictures suggests that potential moviegoers are encouraged to see a particular movie by the good reviews it has received. Yet experimental evidence on actual consumers is mixed as to whether or not this is the case. Against this background, we examine the relationship between movie critics’ reviews and the decision to see motion pictures in movie theatres. Based on an experimental approach using four treatments – no review, a poor/OK minus review, an OK/OK plus review and a very good review – movie-seeing decisions for seven movie genres are examined. What we find is at odds with experimental studies, yielding as they do mixed results for the association between favourable reviews and movie preference. Seemingly unrelated regressions consistently show that the better the expert review of a movie, the more likely it is that people will see it. Yet the magnitude of the effects of expert reviews appears both somewhat genre specific and gender specific.     

Does preschool education attendance matter? Evidence from a natural experiment in Spain

The non-compulsory and non-free of charge character of preschool education level before 3 years old in Spain raises some doubts about the exogenous nature of this variable. This article provides new evidence about the impact of preschool years on educational outcomes by exploiting a peculiar Spanish database that supplies information on two classrooms at fourth grade in primary schools where students were randomly allocated into each group. Using an identification strategy that reproduces a natural experiment, we find that belonging to the group with more average years of preschool education significantly and positively impacts on fourth-grade students’ average outcomes. Particularly, an increase of one standard deviation in the difference in years of preschool attendance results in an increase of 0.16 (0.13) standard deviations in the group achievement for mathematics (reading). In view of the importance of preschool education and considering that preschool attendance before 3 years old is related with socio-economic variables, we conclude that extending free preschool education to the 2-year-old age group in Spain should be considered especially for students in families with less favourable backgrounds.