Effects of Label Information on Consumer Willingness-to-Pay for Food Attributes

Choice experiments (CEs) are often used to elicit consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food attributes. A concern about these approaches is that food attributes provided to respondents are assumed independent of attributes not provided. We use surveys containing a series of CEs to investigate effects of adding beef steak attributes. WTP for important attributes in the CEs decrease when the number of attributes increases from three to four, while WTP increases when the number of attributes increases from four to five. Changes in WTP for attributes depend on their relationships with newly added attributes and the number of attributes presented.     

Unraveling determinants of inferred and stated attribute nonattendance: Effects on farmers’ willingness to accept to join agri-environmental schemes

Attribute nonattendance (ANA) has received very little attention in the context of willingness to accept (WTA), although an increasing number of studies analyze the preferences of ecosystem service providers toward incentive-based schemes. We add to the understanding of ANA behavior by analyzing stated and inferred ANA in a choice experiment investigating farmers’ WTA for participating in agri-environmental schemes (AES) in southern Spain. We use mixed logit models, following Hess and Hensher for the inferred ANA approach. Evidence is found of ANA behavior for both stated and inferred approaches, with models accounting for ANA clearly outperforming those that do not account for it; however, we produce no conclusive results as to which ANA approach is best. WTA estimates are only moderately affected, which to some extent is consistent with the low level of non-attendance found for the monetary attribute. Stated and inferred approaches show very similar WTA estimates. Additionally, we investigate sources of observed heterogeneity related to ANA behavior by using a sequence of bivariate probit models for each attribute. Overall, our results hint at a positive relationship between ease of scheme adoption and nonattendance to attributes. However, further research is still needed in this field.     

Serial Nonparticipation in Repeated Discrete Choice Models

We consider alternative econometric strategies for addressing serial nonparticipation, that is, repeated choice of the same alternative or same type of alternative across a series of choice occasions, in data typically analyzed within the repeated discrete choice framework. Single and double hurdle variants of the repeated discrete choice model are developed and applied to choice experiment and multisite seasonal recreation demand data. Our results suggest that hurdle models can generate significant improvements in statistical fit and qualitatively different policy implications, particularly in choice experiment applications where the proper treatment of serial nonparticipation is relatively more ambiguous.     

What If You Stop and Think About It? Nutrition Logos and Product Selection Behavior

This study explores the effect of a health involvement manipulation on food choices and how food choices are influenced by front-of-pack nutrition labels. The results show that without health involvement, choice was significantly affected by both nutrition labels and product type, but the product choice with health involvement was affected only by whether the product was selected as the healthier one in the involvement manipulation stage. Moreover, selection of the healthiest product during the manipulation stage was affected by the product type but not the front-of-pack (FOP) labels, potentially because participants relied on their own knowledge or the product perception to assess the healthiness of the product rather than the label information. The implication is that consumers seem to behave differently when pushed into a “choose healthy” state of mind, and their reliance on label information to assess product healthiness may be product and context dependent.     

Contractual choice and food safety strategy: Empirical findings in the Italian poultry sector

Analysis of contract choice is related here to the contracting nature of hybrid governance structures. First, recent research results on the organization of food safety supply are summarized and some remarks about contracting are proposed, providing the theoretical premises of the study. The approach of empirical analysis is concerned with transactions between farmers and processors in Italian poultry supply chains. The contract arrangement is classified as a hybrid structure, and growers' preferences regarding contract terms are analysed by a choice experiment. Final remarks take into account the role of contract attributes in ensuring the degree of food safety, and give a tentative organizational explanation of the degree of safety supplied. Potential lines of future research are mentioned.     

A Holistic vs. an Attribute‐based Approach to Agri‐Environmental Policy Valuation: Do Welfare Estimates Differ?

Different economic valuation methodologies can be used to value the non‐market benefits of an agri‐environmental scheme. In particular, the non‐market value can be examined by assessing the public’s willingness to pay for the policy outputs as a whole or by modelling the preferences of society for the component attributes of the rural landscape that result from the implementation of the policy. In this article we examine whether the welfare values estimated for an agri‐environmental policy are significantly different between an holistic valuation methodology (using contingent valuation) and an attribute‐based valuation methodology (choice experiment). It is argued that the valuation methodology chosen should be based on whether or not the overall objective is the valuation of the agri‐environment policy package in its entirety or the valuation of each of the policy’s distinct environmental outputs.     

The Interaction of Global Value Chains and Rural Livelihoods: The Case of Smallholder Raspberry Growers in Chile

This paper integrates aspects of global value chain and sustainable rural livelihoods analyses in an exploration of the local impacts of agri‐food globalization in Chile. In particular, it examines the evolution of the raspberry export sector in the context of Chile's non‐traditional agricultural export boom, and considers its importance to smallholder growers and rural households in central Chile. The paper first outlines the geography and structural configuration of the global value chain for Chilean raspberries, and considers modes of governance and forms of coordination between key actors within the chain. Second, the terms and implications of smallholder grower participation in the value chain are explored in a discussion of access to key livelihoods assets. The paper concludes that institutional support to smallholders, even in the case of a crop that is widely seen to have a small‐scale ‘size bias’, remains integral to their capacity to comply with required safety and quality standards and gain and retain market access via the value chain.