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Intensive animal production practices lead to animal suffering worldwide. This study examined whether farmers cope with the negative impact of farming practices on their animals by ascribing them less capacity to suffer compared with other species. Most people like eating meat but find animal suffering emotionally disturbing. Human omnivores employ a variety of strategies to navigate this “meat paradox,” and one of these is to reduce their perception of animals’ capacity to suffer. Psychological defenses associated with meat-eating have been widely researched, but this study provides the first investigation into how these are employed amongst those involved in meat production and focusses on intensive pig producers as an example. Seventy-six pig farmers reported their belief in pigs’ capacity to experience pain, hunger, fear, and boredom in a paper-based survey employing visual analogue scales. Their responses were compared with their perceptions of livestock that they did not farm (cows) and two companion animal species (dogs and cats). These results were compared with people who had similar experience of working with pigs (15 specialized pig veterinarians) and those who had no experience of pigs (23 agricultural students, 22 animal science students, and 58 citizens unrelated to agriculture). The results of the 194 responses provide evidence to suggest that the pig farmers did not ascribe their animals a diminished capacity to suffer. Rather, pig farmers expressed an enhanced belief in pigs’ capacity to experience hunger. All comparison groups expressed widespread belief in each species’ capacity to suffer. Nevertheless, dogs were the species judged to be most capable of suffering, and animal science students gave the highest suffering scores overall. Farmers are directly responsible for the welfare of their animals, and further investigation into the psychological and behavioral strategies of farmers may provide insight into non-financial reasons behind the generally slow progress in improving animal welfare.

This study aims to elicit the preferences of Omani small-scale vegetable farmers towards contracting with different emerging and other potential business partners along with other contract terms. To accomplish this, a discrete choice experiment was adopted to elicit farmers' preferences towards different contract models. The choice data was analyzed using both latent classes as well as mixed logit models and as a result, three classes were found to best capture the preferences. Class 1 represents 45% of the respondents who are more likely to adopt the “multipartite contract” model. This segment is characterized by a high education level, older age, and smaller family size. The second class represents 31% of the sample and tends to adopt an “informal contract” model. This group has a low experience, larger farm size, and own their private land. The last class represents 23% of the observations and is in favour of the “centralized contract” model. The main characteristics of this class are the low education level, older age, and medium income. Realizing the farmers’ preferences and their characteristics are certainly important in improving farmers’ participation in the vegetables’ market and gearing the policies towards food security.

Known in the literature as underutilized, neglected or orphan crops, these crops have been cited as having the potential to improve food and nutritional security. The literature also highlights however that consumers in developing countries are increasingly abandoning their traditional diets that these crops are part of, and are replacing them by western diets. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumption and nutritional implications of expanding the participation of underutilized crops in current diets. This was done using a modified version of the microeconomic consumer problem. This was augmented with a linear constraint using generalized rationing theory that can be found in the economics literature. The method was applied to the case study of the consumption of millet (finger millet, botanical name: Eleusine coracana) by rural, urban-poor and urban-affluent Ugandan socioeconomic groups. The results indicated that millet could contribute to improving the intake of macronutrients and of some micronutrients, though the overall picture is complex. However, under current preferences and given its demand inelasticity, to achieve a substantial increase in the quantity of millet in the diet will require a significant reduction of its price. Otherwise, the net impact on nutrition as measured by the mean adequacy ratio will be only slightly positive for rural and urban-poor households. Our findings indicate that supply-side initiatives aimed at increasing the productivity of underutilized crops (reducing crop price) are likely to produce disappointing results in restoring their importance unless accompanied by specific interventions to expand demand. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40100-021-00206-3.

The estimation of marginal utility of income in discrete choice experiments is of crucial importance for the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP) and welfare estimates. Despite this central importance, there are only few investigations into the impact of the design of the cost attribute vector on choices and WTP estimates. We present a conceptual framework that describes why cost vector effects might occur in choice experiments, and investigate cost vector effects empirically drawing on data from a choice experiment in the context of peatland restoration in Scotland. This study employs a split sample approach with three different cost vectors that vary considerably in the cost levels offered to respondents, and investigates differences between treatments with respect to marginal WTP estimates, status quo choice, use of systematic decision strategies and attribute non-attendance. A key finding is that the choice of cost vectors can affect the incidence of decision strategies. After accounting for the differential use of a decision strategy that might not be consistent with random utility modelling, cost vectors that are higher in magnitude result in higher WTP, in line with an anchoring hypothesis. We find weak support that marginal WTP of lower income respondents is affected differently compared to higher income respondents through the use of different cost vectors. Differences in welfare estimates resulting from the use of different cost vectors might change outcomes of cost-benefit analyses. We therefore recommend that researchers include tests of sensitivity of welfare estimates to different cost vectors in their study design.

This paper describes a choice experiment (CE) administered to explore farmer preferences for conservation agreements to conserve rare breeds among a sample of 174 respondents in Transylvania (Romania). The study site was chosen due to the prevalence of small-scale and extensive farm systems threatened by a changing policy environment that is increasing the scale and intensity of production units. Agreement attributes included length of conservation contract (5 or 10 years); scheme structure (community or individual managed conservation programme), and scheme support (application assistance or farm advisory support). A monetary attribute that reflects compensation for scheme participation allows the assessment of farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) for different contracts. Results suggest 89% of respondents would be willing to farm with rare breeds; cattle and sheep being the most popular livestock option; 40% of farmers were reportedly farming with endangered breeds. However, only 8% were likely to qualify for funding support under current requirements. WTA estimates reveal minimum annual compensation values of €167 and €7 per year respectively, for bovine and ovine farmers to consider enrolling in a contract. These values are comparable to Romanian Rural Development Programme (RDP) support offered to farmers keeping rare breeds of €200 and €10 per year for bovine and ovine farmers respectively. Our estimates of scheme uptake, calculated with coefficient values derived from the CE, suggest rare breed conservation contracts are considered attractive by Romanian farmers. Analysis suggests meeting farmer preferences for non-monetary contractual factors will increase participation.

The future of organic agriculture will, to a large extent, depend on consumer demand. As a result, the last three decades have witnessed a considerable increase in the number of papers that have attempted to identify the determinants of organic food consumption and whether organic foods are competing with other ethical food products such as local foods, animal-friendly foods, healthier foods and free-from foods (e.g., dairy free, gluten free, nut free). This study went a step further and assessed the use of animal welfare and nutritional information to increase the demand for and the competitive power of organic foods using a non-hypothetical experimental auction. Overall, the results showed that the demand for organic animal products could be improved not only by selling better its superiority in terms of sustainability but also by promoting its advantages in terms of other attributes that are known to be highly valued by consumers such as animal welfare and nutritional content. Therefore, producers and marketers of organic animal products should be fully aware of the potential of their products and ready to exploit all their advantages if they want to improve their competitive power as well as their demand.

Dairy is a key investment sector for the Government of Malawi. On 1 October 2016, the Malawi Revenue Authority announced that milk, which until then had been exempted from value added tax (VAT), was going to be taxed at the standard rate of 16.5 percent. The measure has been met with strong opposition and thus, was short lived (eliminated in May 2017). The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the effect that such a tax would have on its incidence, on the different stages of the supply chain, and ultimately on its economic and social sustainability. The paper investigates these implications by developing a multimarket model applied to the Malawian dairy supply chain. The results indicate that 24.3 percent of the VAT revenues would be borne by consumers and the remaining 75.7 percent would be borne by the domestic dairy industry (i.e., processors and smallholder farmers). This was due mainly to the value of the price elasticity of consumers&rsquo, demand for pasteurised milk. The results highlight the vulnerability of inclusive value chains to economic policies that may affect consumers&rsquo, demand.

Intensive agriculture and meat-based westernized diets have brought a heavy environmental burden to the planet. Legumes, or pulses, are members of the large Fabaceae (Leguminosae) family, which comprise about 5% of all plant species. They are ancient crops whose popularity both for farmers and consumers has gonethrough several stages of acceptance, and in recent years, legumes have regained their luster. This is due to a global understanding that: (1) farming systems need to promote biodiversity, (2) biological nitrogen fixation is an important tool to reduce the application of external chemical inputs, namely in the form of nitrogen fertil- izers, and that (3) plant-based foods have fewer adverse environmental effects per unit weight, per serving, per unit of energy, or per protein weight than do animal source foods, across various environmental indicators. Legumes play a key role in answering these three global challenges and are pivotal actors in the diversification and sustainable intensification of agriculture, particularly in light of new and urgent challenges such as climate change. In this chapter, we showcase the importance of legumes as contemporary agents of change, whose impacts start in the field, but then branch out into competitive global economies, modernized societies, and ultimately, improved food security and human health.

We examine evidence from two unique discrete choice experiments (DCE) on long term care insurance and values several of its relevant attributes. More specifically, the experiments examine choices made by a large sample made of 15,298 individuals in the United States with and without insurance. We study the valuation of a number of insurance attributes, namely the daily insurance benefit, insurance coverage, the compulsory and voluntary nature of the insurance policy design, alongside the costs (insurance premium) and health requirements. This paper elicits both respondents’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for these care insurance's attributes using a random parameter logit model, and assesses the heterogeneity of choice responses using demographic, socioeconomic and attitudinal motivations to segment response to insurance choices. We find that an increase in the insurance premium by an additional $100 would reduce insurance uptake by 1pp. Insurance policy uptake is higher when it provides benefits for the lifetime (the monthly marginal WTP being $178.64), and voluntary (the monthly marginal WTP increases by an extra $74.71) as opposed to universal, and when it forgoes health checks (the monthly marginal WTP increases by an extra 28US$).

This Deliverable report presents the impact of key factors influencing decision making of farmers and consumers to uptake legume cultivation and, respectively, the choice to include legumes into diets. Results provide guidance on determinants of positive behavioural change towards legume inclusion. Farmer and consumer analyses are based on survey data for the UK farmers and consumers, and findings are discussed comparatively in the context of European production and consumption and main factors potentially influencing behaviours and trends. The report informs how we may operate more effectively to affect behavioural change positively towards legume inclusion.

The series of decision models produced in this Deliverable (D8.2) will be integrated into a model for the assessment of overall sustainability of legume systems, with respect to the identification of key legume-based system indicators for the three pillars of sustainability. The decision model will be then used for evaluation of the relative sustainability of transition pathways to more effective scenarios.&nbsp

This study investigates the substitution and complementary effects for beef mince attributes drawing on data from large choice experiments conducted in the UK and Spain. In both countries, consumers were found to be willing to pay a price premium for the individual use of the labels &ldquo, Low Fat&rdquo, (UK: &euro, 3.41, Spain: &euro, 1.94), &ldquo, Moderate Fat&rdquo, 2.23, Spain: &euro, 1.57), &ldquo, Local&rdquo, 1.54, Spain: &euro, 1.61), &ldquo, National&rdquo, 1.33, Spain: &euro, 1.37), &ldquo, Organic&rdquo, 1.02, Spain: &euro, 1.09) and &ldquo, Low Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG)&rdquo, 2.05, Spain: &euro, 0.96). The results showed that consumers in both countries do not treat desirable food attributes as unrelated. In particular, consumers in Spain are willing to pay a price premium for the use of the labels &ldquo, &ldquo, and &ldquo, Low GHG&rdquo, on beef mince that is also labelled as having low or moderate fat content. By contrast, consumers in the UK were found to discount the coexistence of the labels &ldquo, The results, however, suggest that in the UK the demand for beef mince with moderate (low) fat content can be increased if it is also labelled as &ldquo, or &ldquo, (&ldquo, ).

Intensive agriculture and meat-based westernized diets have brought a heavy environmental burden to the planet. Legumes, or pulses, are members of the large Fabaceae (Leguminosae) family, which comprise about 5% of all plant species. They are ancient crops whose popularity both for farmers and consumers has gone through several stages of acceptance, and in recent years, legumes have regained their luster. This is due to a global understanding that: (1) farming systems need to promote biodiversity, (2) biological nitrogen fixation is an important tool to reduce the application of external chemical inputs, namely in the form of nitrogen fertilizers, and that (3) plant-based foods have fewer adverse environmental effects per unit weight, per serving, per unit of energy, or per protein weight than do animal source foods, across various environmental indicators. Legumes play a key role in answering these three global challenges and are pivotal actors in the diversification and sustainable intensification of agriculture, particularly in light of new and urgent challenges such as climate change. In this chapter, we showcase the importance of legumes as contemporary agents of change, whose impacts start in the field, but then branch out into competitive global economies, modernized societies, and ultimately, improved food security and human health.

The analysis of changes in prices is not only important because they directly affect households&rsquo, affordability and, therefore, their food security but also because they may trigger changes in the composition of their food and drink choices. Thus, an increase in prices may force a household with limited resources to choose a bundle of goods with lower prices that substitute their original choices and are probably of lower quality. This paper considers the situation of each UK country and the implications that trading down in quality within a food and drink category has on nutrition. Two motivations to pursue these analyses are to explore the sort of substitutions that households do within a category due to an increase in prices and, in the UK leaving the European Union (Brexit) context, the impact that an increase in food prices may have on nutrition. After computing estimates for trading down for each country for the period 2007&ndash, 2014, we regress the annual rate of change by nutrient with respect to the annual trading in quality for six food qualities that are major contributors of fat, sugar and salt to the diet. The results indicate that trading down in quality occurs in most of the studied categories and countries, and when households trade down, they move to products with worse nutritional quality. This points out the need to keep improving the quality of products through reformulation, ensure that consumers are well informed of nutritional quality of products and monitor the effect of changes in prices.

Several studies on ethical and social food attributes have shown that consumers, especially in developed countries, are willing to pay a price premium for fair trade foods products. However, there is a scant literature on how consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for fair trade products are affected by the presence of other ethical food attributes. To fill this gap, a choice experiment was conducted in Scotland, the Netherlands and France to assess consumers’ preferences and WTP for ethical attributes, i.e., fairtrade, organic, and lower carbon footprint, of bananas and to find out whether this ethical food attributes are competing in real markets. The results showed that in the three countries consumers are willing to pay a price premium for the three ethical food attributes. The results showed that in the current market situation these ethical foods are not generally competing against each other. Nonetheless, they are likely to become competing for consumer’s money at least when: (1) the price of organic foods is decreased significantly, (2) the price for fairtrade food products is set higher than consumers’ WTP, and (3) bananas labeled as having lower carbon footprint are made available in retail stores and sold at a price lower than consumers’ WTP.

When deciding whether to invest in an improvement to animal welfare, farmers must trade-off the relative costs and benefits. Despite the existence of effective solutions to many animal welfare issues, farmers’ willingness to pay for them is largely unknown. This study modelled pig farmers’ decisions to improve animal welfare using a discrete choice experiment focused on alleviating aggression between growing/finishing pigs at regrouping. Eighty-two UK and Irish pig farm owners and managers were asked to choose between hypothetical aggression control strategies described in terms of four attributes; installation cost, on-going cost, impact on skin lesions from aggression and impact on growth rate. If they did not like any of the strategies they could opt to keep their current farm practice. Systematic variations in product attributes allowed farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay to be estimated and latent class modelling accounted for heterogeneity in responses. The overall willingness to pay to reduce lesions was low at £0.06 per pig place (installation cost) and £0.01 per pig produced (running cost) for each 1% reduction in lesions. Results revealed three independent classes of farmers. Farmers in Class 1 were unlikely to regroup unfamiliar growing/finishing pigs, and thus were unwilling to adopt measures to reduce aggression at regrouping. Farmers in Classes 2 and 3 were willing to adopt measures providing certain pre-conditions were met. Farmers in Class 2 were motivated mainly by business goals, whilst farmers in Class 3 were motivated by both business and animal welfare goals, and were willing to pay the most to reduce aggression; £0.11 per pig place and £0.03 per pig produced for each 1% reduction in lesions. Farmers should not be considered a homogeneous group regarding the adoption of animal welfare innovations. Instead, campaigns should be targeted at subgroups according to their independent preferences and willingness to pay.

Several animal welfare issues persist in practice despite extensive research which has been linked to the unwillingness of stakeholders to make changes. For example, most farmers do not perceive pig aggression to be a problem that requires action despite the fact that stress and injuries are common, and that several solutions exist. Frequent exposure to animal suffering could affect farmer responses to distressed animals. This study investigated for the first time whether this occurs, using pig aggression as a focus. Using video clips, 90 pig farmers judged the severity of aggression, level of pig exhaustion and the strength of their own emotional response. Their judgments were compared to objective measures of severity (pigs’ skin lesions and blood lactate), and against control groups with similar pig experience (10 pig veterinarians) and without experience (26 agricultural students; 24 animal science students). Famers did not show desensitization to aggression. However, all groups underestimated the outcome of aggression when they did not see the fight occurring as compared to witnessing a fight in progress. We suggest that farmers be provided with evidence of the economic and welfare impact of aggression as indicated by lesions and that they be advised to score lesions on affected animals.

Several animal welfare issues persist in practice despite extensive research which has been linked to the unwillingness of stakeholders to make changes. For example, most farmers do not perceive pig aggression to be a problem that requires action despite the fact that stress and injuries are common, and that several solutions exist. Frequent exposure to animal suffering could affect farmer responses to distressed animals. This study investigated for the first time whether this occurs, using pig aggression as a focus. Using video clips, 90 pig farmers judged the severity of aggression, level of pig exhaustion and the strength of their own emotional response. Their judgments were compared to objective measures of severity (pigs’ skin lesions and blood lactate), and against control groups with similar pig experience (10 pig veterinarians) and without experience (26 agricultural students, 24 animal science students). Famers did not show desensitization to aggression. However, all groups underestimated the outcome of aggression when they did not see the fight occurring as compared to witnessing a fight in progress. We suggest that farmers be provided with evidence of the economic and welfare impact of aggression as indicated by lesions and that they be advised to score lesions on affected animals.

This study assesses the comparability of discrete choice experiment (DCE), ranking conjoint analysis (RCA) and multiprofile best–worst scaling (BWS) in a nonhypothetical context in terms of estimated partworths, willingness to pay (WTP), response consistency and external validity. Overall, the results suggest that: (i) the conjoint analysis formats that were used in this study provide similar estimated WTP, but different estimated partworths and computed external validity; (ii) the inclusion of the full ranking information in the estimation of the parameters of interest affects the estimated partworths, but not the estimated WTP; and (iii) it is more appropriate to use multiprofile BWS over DCE and RCA because it has better predictive power of consumers’ preferences and provides estimated WTP comparable to those obtained in the others conjoint analysis formats. The BWS’ cognitive process could be considered clearness for participants implying significant increment of its predictive power.

Simple Summary Aggression between pigs is an important animal welfare issue in commercial farming, and is caused by an unstable social structure due to regular regrouping of unfamiliar pigs. The behavior has been extensively researched and several strategies to reduce aggression have been identified, however, they are not commonly used by farmers in practice. We conducted a survey of 122 UK and Irish pig farmers with the aim of understanding why farmers do not adequately implement aggression control strategies. This was important in order to identify targets for encouraging a change in practice. We found that the majority of farmers mixed pigs at least once during production and had tried at least one mitigation strategy in the past. However, farmers expressed limited willingness to implement strategies in the future, and this was influenced by: (1) their beliefs about the outcome of controlling aggression; (2) their perception of their ability to implement the necessary changes; (3) their perceptions of aggression as a problem and; (4) their views of relevant stakeholder groups. Based on these findings we make important recommendations on how to bridge the gap between research and practice. Abstract Aggression between pigs remains an important animal welfare issue despite several solutions existing. Uptake of livestock welfare research relies on various stakeholders being willing to recommend or adopt changes to farm structure or management (e.g., veterinarians, researchers, farmers). This survey provides insight into the attitudes and practices of 122 UK and Irish pig farmers regarding aggression between growing pigs. Our aim was to understand why mitigation strategies are not adequately implemented. The majority of farmers mixed pigs at least once during production and had tried at least one mitigation strategy in the past. Farmers expressed limited willingness to implement strategies in the future, and a structural equation model revealed that this was directly influenced by their beliefs about the outcome of controlling aggression, and their perception of their ability to implement the necessary changes. Willingness was indirectly influenced by their perceptions of aggression as a problem and views of relevant stakeholder groups. Veterinarians had the greatest impact on farmer behavior. We recommend that researchers test research findings in practice, calculate cost-benefits of implementation, and transfer knowledge through various sources. This study showed that structural equation modeling is a valuable tool to understand farmer behavior regarding specific and entrenched animal welfare issues.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess Scottish consumers’ demand for animal welfare and organic pork. The paper also tried to answer the following questions: first, are animal-friendly pork and organic-pork complements or substitutes (competing)? Second, what is the relationship between pork products with different animal welfare labels (i.e. “freedom food” pork vs “specially selected pork”)? Third, does the demand for animal-friendly and organic pork vary with the level of deprivation of the area where consumers are living? Design/methodology/approach – The dataset used in the analysis is the Kantar Worldpanel dataset for Scotland, which contains weekly data of food and drink purchases for consumption at home, covering the period 2006-2011. The panel is representative of the Scottish population and covers about 3,694 households. The linear version of the almost ideal demand system was estimated. Then, the own- and the cross-price elasticities as well as the expenditure elasticities for the 22 food categories and products were computed. Findings – The results indicate that when the price of animal-friendly pork increases, consumers decrease their consumption of this product and substitute it by organic pork or regular pork, especially in the case of fresh pork, bacon and sausages. It was found that products with different animal welfare accreditation are substitutes in the eyes of Scottish consumers and are, therefore, competing for the market share of animal-friendly foods. The results also show that the demand for animal-friendly pork is more elastic in the most deprived areas in Scotland. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that estimates the demand for conventional, animal-friendly and organic pork using a scanner data in Scotland and controlling for the variation by area of deprivation.

This study measures consumers’ willingness to pay for the attributes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during production, food miles and origin (local/non-local) of rice products and assesses the interaction effects (complementarities and substitutions) between these food attributes using a non-hypothetical experimental auction. Results typically show that consumers are willing to pay a price premium for rice that has lower GHG emissions, lower food miles and/or is local. Most importantly, consumers were found to trade off these three food attributes. The results also show that consumers do not perceive the attributes food miles and origin as perfect substitutes.

This repository contains a series of brochures promoting the work of the Land Economy, Environment and Society research group.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with food consumption have become particularly pertinent issues given recent warnings that the planet recently has experienced its hottest year. One way proposed to reduce those emissions is through a carbon consumption taxes. This study uses consumption, nutrient and GHG emission data to estimate the impact of two ad-valorem taxes: one applied by food category and another by the carbon emission of the products. The results suggest that the carbon consumption tax scenarios would reduce GHG emissions by a greater quantity relative to the ad-valorem tax scenario; however, the intake of important nutrients will also decrease in these scenarios. Therefore, creating an environmentally sustainable and nutritious diet through taxation is challenging and requires compromise between the nutrition and environmental sustainability.

The effects of written information of key sensory characteristics of apple cultivars on hedonic ratings and willingness to pay (WTP) were measured in an experimental auction. Participants (n = 118, 95F, 23M, mean age 37y.) rated, in three subsequent rounds, pleasantness and WTP based on (1) appearance only (n = 25), (2) appearance, written information and tasting (n = 44), or (3) appearance, tasting and written information (n = 49). Four domestic cultivars were described as medium sour and crispy ('Amorosa'), sour and medium crispy ('Konsta'), medium sweet and medium crispy ('Lobo') and sweet and medium crispy ('Tobias'). The differences between the cultivars in pleasantness and WTP were minimal when the evaluation was based on appearance only. The effect of tasting after visual inspection was positive in three cultivars and negative in one ('Konsta'). Written information after tasting did not affect pleasantness or WTP. For one cultivar ('Tobias'), information given before tasting created expectations that were not fulfilled, thus tasting decreased hedonic ratings and WTP. Mean WTP was 2.36 euro/kg. When pleasantness increased by one point, WTP increased by 0.31-0.45 euro/kg. Regression models showed that pleasantness explained 38-55% of WTP. Respondents who reported consuming domestic apples more often than once a week had 0.52-0.74 euro/kg higher WTP than those who consumed them less frequently, suggesting that familiarity with the product increases WTP. Results indicate that both written information and tasting contribute to the ratings of pleasantness and WTP. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This cross-country investigation of food demand and its determinants confirmed a number of stylized facts: first, consumers respond to prices and the law of demand applies to all foods at a fairly high level of product disaggregation; second, most food products are necessities, as their demand responds positively but less than proportionally to changes in consumption expenditure, implying that Engle’s law is also ve-rified in all countries; third, for all countries, some cross-price elasticities are both statistically significant and relatively large, which confirms the necessity of considering whole diets rather than only subsets of foods when analyzing policies to enhance the sustainability of food consumption patterns. Beyond those well-known regularities, however, the analysis indicates that demand relationships remain highly specific to each country.

Using multi-unit auctions, we examined the effect of different distributions of price discount across multiple units of a relatively new product on consumers' Willingness to Pay (WTP), sales value and retailers' revenue. We found that allowing the price discount to be increasing in the number of units increases willingness to pay, sales value and retailers' revenue and that a price discount that is uniformly distributed across units also has the potential to motivate consumers to buy more units of the product. However, multi-unit price promotions that concentrate all the amount of price discount on the last unit only generate a weak positive effect on sales value. [EconLit Citations: C910, D120, M310].

Conflicting findings have been found in previous research that compared choice-based conjoint analysis and ranking conjoint analysis in a public good setting. The present paper revisits this issue for a private good in a non-hypothetical context using small and large choice sets. Our results suggest that in a small choice set setting, participants' preferences and willingness to pay are similar across the two conjoint analysis formats. However, in large choice sets, a divergence between the two conjoint analysis formats emerges. Hence, the two conjoint analysis formats can only be used interchangeably in small choice sets, not in large choice sets. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of the oath script (HO) in an hypothetical Contingent Valuation survey in a Mediterranean country (e.g. Italy). Hence, there were conducted the CE surveys with three treatments: (1) CV without a cognitive task, (2) CV with a CT script, and (3) CV with a HO. The findings showed that the effectiveness of the HO script depends on the participants'' socio-demographic characteristics. For instance, it was found that the HO script could help to reduce the hypothetical bias for people who possess a high educational level in contrast with those people with low education and low income. Hence, the findings suggest that the oath script not only does not a guarantee the reduction of the hypothetical bias, but it also does not explain the mixed results found in the previous studies.

As human life expectancy increases, the potential for nutraceutical products expands. Economic theory and sensory science were integrated to determine (1) consumer acceptance of potential health statements about a juice blend and (2) the relative satisfaction consumers derived from sensory and nutraceutical characteristics of a juice blend. Four nonhypothetical experimental auction sessions with 11–12 consumers/session were held (n = 47) to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an optimized juice blend (87% Concord grape and 13% blackberry). Participants in two sessions tasted the product first and then received a potential health statement about the juice blend regarding positive benefits of anthocyanins before the third round (vice versa for the other two sessions). The WTP for the juice blend was higher when subjects tasted the product first and then received the potential health statement, which indicated a contrast effect caused by treatment order. Agreement with the potential health statement was not correlated to WTP. Nutraceutical product launch should be accompanied with in-store taste sessions to introduce consumers to product sensory properties. Practical Applications Consumers' willingness-to-pay for nutraceuticals can be assessed through nonhypothetical experimental auctions. Nonhypothetical value elicitation methods use real money and products to advantageously eliminate hypothetical bias. Experimental auctions allow product attributes such as nutraceutical status to be assessed along with sensory characteristics; hence, auctions can more easily capture all product aspects that contribute to consumer liking. Understanding how consumers value all attributes can provide crucial information about a product's marketplace sustainability.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the market potential of a locally produced and high quality food product (i.e. white bean “Mongeta Ganxet” (MG)) from Catalonia, Spain. Consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the product is elicited using a non‐hypothetical economic experiment and then the sensitivity of WTP values is analyzed with regard to additional information provided to participants that includes reference prices, leaflets and tasting. Finally, a sample‐selection model is estimated to assess the factors that significantly affect consumers' WTP for the product.Design/methodology/approachTo elicit the willingness to pay a premium for the local food product, 90 subjects were invited to participate in a random nth price experimental auction. Before auctioning the product, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about consumer attitudes and purchase habits.FindingsOnly 7 percent of participants are willing to pay a price higher than the minimum price from which the MG product may be purchased directly from a producer or the local producing market. Also, it was found that providing reference prices of substitute products (both conventional and alternative high quality white beans) positively affects WTP for the MG. Interestingly, however, provision of information on organoleptic, nutritional and cooking characteristics of the MG and product tasting do not significantly influence WTP. Finally, the level of consumption, the degree of knowledge about the product and the participants' previous experience increase the purchasing intention for the MG.Originality/valueIn contrast to traditional market research studies that use hypothetical methods, the authors use non‐hypothetical elicitation mechanism to elicit consumers' valuation for an important local food product in Catalonia, Spain. Since actual products and cash were used in the experiments, the authors provided the respondents with an incentive to reveal their true preferences and valuation for the product of interest. The authors also tested the effect of provision of certain types of information on WTP and analyzed the factors that significantly influence consumers' WTP for the product.

We examine the effect of varying the number of bidders and units on bid values in multi-unit auctions. Our results suggest that the uniform-price auction is sensitive to demand reduction, however, increasing the number of bidders or/and units can significantly decrease it. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper proposes the use of multi-unit auctions in studying consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for food products in a multi-unit shopping scenario. We show how this method can overcome the limitations of single-unit experimental auctions in obtaining useful information related to WTP for not just the first unit but also subsequent units of a product, the demand curve, consumer surplus, the determinants of consumers’ WTP for each auctioned unit, and the effect of potential price discount strategies.