Who Pays More for Food?

Building on research with unit values, we demonstrate how a household's per serving and total vegetable expenditures depend on both the characteristics of the household and on its location. The lower a household's income, for example, the lower is vegetable spending, all else constant. However, households living in communities with high real estate prices, or with a high incidence of poverty, among other things, tend to pay more. Simulations further illustrate the effect that a community's characteristics can have on a household's vegetable spending, if the household lives in each of 10 cities in the United States.     

Linking Consumers’ Food Choice Motives to their Preferences for Insect‐based Food Products: An Application of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Model in an African Context

Consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, personalities and motives play important roles in shaping their food choices. These factors are not fully observed by analysts, so they should be treated as latent variables. A number of economic studies treat such variables as direct measures of consumers’ food choice behaviour, even though this might introduce measurement error and endogeneity bias. We investigate the latent link between consumers’ preferences and food choice motives (FCMs) in an African context. We use an integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) model specification for data analysis to recognise the latent nature of the FCMs and address the measurement and bias problems. The data originate from an incentivised discrete choice experiment conducted in Kenya to elicit consumers’ preferences for insect‐based foods. Our findings show that consumers’ preferences and choices are influenced by their latent motivational orientation. The results illustrate the benefit of the ICLV approach in accounting for consumers’ latent preference constructs in food choice and valuation research.     

Consumers' Preferences for Nanotechnology in Food Packaging: A Discrete Choice Experiment

We examine consumers' preferences for chickens under different levels of foodborne health risk, animal welfare and pric attributes. We analyse how their preferences vary according to the risk reduction method. Our comparison is between risk reductions achieved by conventional improvements in the meat supply chain system (e.g. more stringent regulations and inspection regimes), and risk reductions achieved by food packaging nanosensors. Our comparison uses a two‐treatment discrete choice experiment in which each treatment sample is only presented with one of the risk reductions: either nanotechnology or conventional methods. We also investigate heterogeneity in preferences for two consumer groups: (i) consumers who usually buy conventional raw, whole chickens, and (ii) consumers who usually buy niche, welfare‐improved chickens, such as free‐range and organic. Our results show evidence of heterogeneity in preferences and willingness‐ to‐pay values of the both consumer groups. We find that consumers, on average, prefer raw, whole chicken with a lower risk of food poisoning, better animal welfare, and lower costs, regardless of the presence of nanosensors. Although consumers in general showed no strong preferences towards or resistance to nanotechnology, those who buy chickens with better animal welfare, on average, showed higher WTP for food risk reduction and animal welfare relative to conventional chicken consumers.     

The Dynamics of Individuals' Fat Consumption

Consumers are increasingly aware of the link between their lifestyle choices and the risk of noncommunicable diseases. A dynamic approach incorporating this linkage in food demand is developed, where consumers maximize utility over time by choosing fat intake to control their cumulative fat level. The resulting dynamic indirect utility function and household data on meat, fish, and dairy consumption are used to estimate a censored demand system. Results show that consumers consciously adjust, but not instantaneously, their cumulative fat level. Highly educated households have a faster rate of adjustment of cumulative fat. When cumulative fat level increases, consumers shift to dairy or white meat from red meat products.     

Empirical Specification Requirements for Two-Constraint Models of Recreation Choice

Two-constraint models are common in recreation-demand analysis because of the important role time can play in consumer choices. Two versions of Roy's identity hold for these models and imply coefficient restrictions on empirical demand functions. The two-constraint restrictions are fully observable and can be expressed in a form analogous to the Slutsky–Hicks equations in single-constraint consumer models. Empirical specifications that use full prices and full budgets can be consistent with the two-constraint models, both when the marginal value of time is exogenous and is endogenous, but models with full prices and money income alone are not.     

发展人工林:解决我国木材供需矛盾的长远战略选择

阐述了发展人工林之所以成为解决我国木材供需矛盾长远战略选择的原因,分析了目前人工林建设中存在的许多有待解决的问题,如人工林生产力低下,科技含量低,树种单一,税负过重,限额采伐挫伤生产者积极性等。并针对这些问题,提出应该深化改革,走林业科技化之路,同时在相关政策上予以扶持。     

Promotion and Fast Food Demand

Many believe that fast food promotion is a significant cause of the obesity epidemic in North America. Industry members argue that promotion only reallocates brand shares and does not increase overall demand. We study the effect of fast food promotion on market share and total demand by estimating a discrete / continuous model of fast food restaurant choice and food expenditure that explicitly accounts for both spatial and temporal determinants of demand. Estimates are obtained using a unique panel of Canadian fast food consumers. The results show that promotion primarily increases demand and has a smaller effect on restaurant market shares.     

A Cautionary Note on Designing Discrete Choice Experiments: A Comment on Lusk and Norwood's "Effect of Experiment Design on Choice-Based Conjoint Valuation Estimates"

Recent Monte Carlo work on choosing experimental designs for discrete choice experiments seemed to greatly simplify this choice for applied researchers. It suggested that ( a ) commonly used designs can generate unbiased estimates for indirect utility function specifications with main effects only and main effects plus higher order terms, and ( b ) random designs are more efficient than main effects designs. We show that these results are very specific to the particular indirect utility specifications studied and do not generalize well. We further show that conclusions drawn concerning random designs are problematic and potentially dangerous for applied researchers.     

Graphical Illustration of Interaction Effects in Binary Choice Models: A Note

Graphing procedures for evaluating power or interaction terms in binary logit and probit models are illustrated in an application to hog producers’ decisions based on transaction cost economics’ hypothesised positive effect of the interaction of uncertainty and asset specificity on contract use. Results support the hypothesis, particularly for producers that are otherwise on the cusp (near the 50/50 probability) of choosing either contract or spot transactions based on their responses for other variables. Such insights may not be drawn without use of the demonstrated graphing procedures.     

Hybrid Surveys: A Method for the Effective Use of Open-Ended Questions in Quantitative Food Choice Surveys

Surveys are based on predetermined questions (PDQs), used in hypothesis testing. To validate surveys, an open-ended question (OEQs), probing for additional factors, is sometimes added. This approach could become more efficient by combining PDQs with OEQs in hybrid surveys. This study surveyed Japanese consumers on seafood quality (n?=?200). It started with three OEQs, asking participants to list the most important factors when evaluating packed mackerel fillets, before they assessed 26 PDQs on importance of different quality dimensions for the same products. The OEQs were grouped based on the PDQs and the answers were counted. The PDQs were rated on 7-point importance scales. The real-life relevance of PDQs was challenged based on the frequency counts of OEQs. The result revealed that the color, overall freshness, and price issues are the most important factors consumers consider in real life. The use of hybrid surveys led to increased validity of this study.     

A Structural Econometric Model of Joint Consumption of Goods and Recreational Time: An Application to Pick-Your-Own Fruit

This article develops a structural econometric consumer demand model for goods, which have time and monetary costs, and where time spent obtaining the goods also enters into the utility function. The model is used to analyze customers' decision to buy pick-your-own versus preharvested strawberries at North Carolina pick-your-own fruit operations. The analysis distinguishes the effect of time as a resource constraint and time that provides utility. Demand for strawberries sold at the operations is price elastic, and demand for pick-your-own strawberries is less price elastic than demand for preharvested strawberries.     

Risk Perceptions, Risk Preference, and Acceptance of Risky Food

Consumers' risk preferences are often overlooked in studies of consumer demand for risky food. We find that risk preferences elicited through context-less lottery choices are significantly related to consumers' stated preferences for genetically modified (GM) food. These results suggest risk preferences elicited in the laboratory are not artificial in the sense that they appear to be related to the same risk preferences that govern other individual decisions such as food choice. Consistent with theoretical expectations, risk perceptions and risk preferences were found to be significant determinants of acceptance of GM food, which has important implications for explaining consumer behavior.     

Choice of Rice Production Practices in Ghana: A Comparison of Willingness to Pay and Preference Space Estimates

Rice has been identified as an important food security crop in Ghana. However, there is a production deficit and new technologies to reduce the deficit are not widely adopted. Although poor adoption by farmers’ is often linked to constraints such as access to information, farmers’ perceptions of the technologies are also important. We apply an advanced discrete choice experiment to evaluate farmers’ preferences for rice production practices. Specifically, we generate willingness to pay (WTP) estimates using willingness to pay space (WS) and compare these with values from the indirect or preference space (PS) method. Our modelling also accounts for the effects on WTP estimates of farmers’ stated attribute importance (SAI) information. Empirical results from WS and PS models reveal that on average, farmers value higher yields and are negatively affected by higher risk of crop failure and labour requirements. Comparing the performance of the two models, we find the WS model provides a superior fit to our data and reduces the likelihood of producing implausible WTP estimates. Further, SAI inclusion did not produce much variation in our WTP estimates.     

The Challenges of Organic Production and Marketing in Europe and Spain: Innovative Marketing for the Future With Quality and Safe Food Products

In this work the actual situation of organic production and marketing in Spain is explained, studying and analyzing their evolution in the last decade of previous the century and in the first years of the new millennium. In Spain, organic production began in the 1970s with pioneers in Catalonia, Murcia Region, and other zones. It was in the 1990s when was observed a great increase in organic surfaces. A very interesting and critical date is that at the moment, more than 80% of organic products are being exported to other European countries, United States, and other foreign markets, and it is necessary to find new marketing strategies and innovations to structure the organic market, give new information to consumers, improve investments in the relation between retailers and consumers, and improve the perception of the utilities of these products. In some countries, as is the case of Spain, the consumers don't have enough information about the characteristics of organic products, organic food, and organic production methodologies. They must have all the information about the benefits of organic production methodologies and their implications in environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, food quality and safety, and this task must be provided by the new marketing strategies and actions.     

The Impact of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children on Child Health

Data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are used to analyze the effect of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program and other factors on the health of U.S. preschool children. Ordered probit equations are estimated for the physician's overall evaluation of the child's health. The WIC Program has a significant positive impact on the overall health of children. In particular, children in households participating in WIC are significantly more likely to be in excellent health. Increased household income also improves their health.     

烹饪专业食品营养与卫生课程教学改革

随着我国高职教育的迅速发展,以工学结合为特色的课程标准广泛应用于高职院校烹饪专业的教学中.食品营养与卫生课程是一门重要的课程,为进一步提升该课程的教学质量,培养学生的职业能力和职业素养.本文结合食品营养与卫生课程教学改革现状,提出教学改革途径,以期实现食品营养与卫生教学质量的进一步提升.     

Preference Heterogeneity and Habit Persistence: The Case of Breakfast Cereal Consumption

The efficiency of information, price campaigns and economic incentive policies related to food depend on the degree of habit persistence in food consumption. This paper estimates the strength of state dependence associated with breakfast cereal consumption and its heterogeneity across households, where positive state dependence implies habit persistence and negative state dependence implies variety seeking in consumption. The analysis uses a detailed micro‐level dataset from the research institute GfK Sweden on household breakfast cereal consumption in 2003. The analysis relies on a mixed multinomial logit model and finds breakfast cereal consumption is generally highly habitual. The degree of habit persistence, however, exhibits heterogeneity across households. In addition, some households can be characterised as variety seeking. The strength of habit persistence is similar across income and educational groups. The strength of habit persistence seems to be weaker for households with several adults and children compared with one‐adult households.     

Valuing the Impacts of An Invasive Biological Control Agent: A Choice Experiment on the Asian Ladybird in France

Initially used as a biological control against aphids, the Asian ladybird has become highly invasive in many regions, including Europe. While biological control is usually considered as an environmentally‐friendly alternative to chemical pesticides in controlling pests in crops, there is growing concern that these environmental benefits could be outweighed by the negative consequences of the invasion. These include (i) biodiversity losses as populations of native ladybirds suffer from intraguild predation and competition for resources; (ii) human nuisance in houses, including risks of allergy and (iii) potential losses to wine‐growers. We provide an economic valuation of environmental and private characteristics affected by the Asian ladybird's invasion. We conduct a discrete choice experiment among a representative sample of the French population. Our results show that the consequences of the Asian ladybird's introduction do affect significantly the population's welfare. Among these, the impact on biodiversity through the threat on native species appears to be a significant concern.