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The Impact of Information on Consumer Preferences for Different Animal Food Production Methods

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Abstract

The motivation for the present study is to understand food choice in relation to animal food production and to study how preferences are influenced by information. To do this, we carried out a choice experiment. In the analysis, we focus on chickens reared indoors and outdoors and chicken labelled campylobacter-free versus non-labelled chicken. The results suggest that there is a positive willingness to pay (WTP) both for chicken reared outdoors and for campylobacter-free labelled chicken. Information about rearing methods resulted in a higher WTP for chicken reared outdoors, while information about campylobacter had both positive and negative effects on respondents’ WTP. The highest increase in WTP for campylobacter-free labelled chicken was found for one of the high risk groups, individuals with poor kitchen hygiene.

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Notes

  1. According to Korsgaard et al. (2005), European and American studies have estimated that the actual numbers of infections are 5–20 times higher than the number of recorded cases. The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries estimates the actual number of cases to be 10–15 times higher than the registered number (www.fvm.dk); in Taenk and Test (2001), the estimate is up to 25 times higher.

  2. The design was created using the %ChoicEff macro in SAS. The macro searches the candidates for an efficient experimental design—a design in which the variances of the parameter estimates are minimized, given an assumed parameter vector—in this case the parameter vector was assumed to be zero (Kuhfeld 2009).

  3. The blocks were created using the %MktBlock macro in SAS. The macro tries to create a blocking factor that is uncorrelated with every attribute of every alternative. In other words, the macro is trying to optimally add one additional factor, a blocking factor, to the design. It is trying to make a factor that is orthogonal to all of the attributes of all of the alternatives (Kuhfeld 2009).

  4. We assume that respondents perceive outdoor production as superior to indoor production—follow-up questions showed that only 5% of the respondents perceived indoor to be superior to outdoor production—these respondents were allowed to choose the dominated alternatives without being excluded from the sample, but the data showed that they did not choose the dominated alternative, so the 121 respondents who did choose the dominated alternative all failed the consistency test; i.e., they did not show utility maximizing behaviour.

  5. The test was applied to the first part of the sample, i.e., to the choice sets before information was given, and tests whether the parameter vectors and scale factors are equal for the two groups of individuals, A and B, i.e., β A = β B and σ A = σ B.

  6. This implies that all parameters are estimated in one “grand” model.

  7. In 2008, DKK 10 ∼EUR 1.34.

  8. When asked about the production method, about 80% of both the men and women thought that chickens reared outdoors enjoyed a higher welfare level, whereas 8% of men did not think so. The corresponding figure for women was 5%. The difference in WTP for men and women is thus likely to emanate from the fact that fewer men considered outdoor rearing to be better from an animal welfare point of view, as well as from the fact that more women stated that they did not know whether outdoor rearing was better or not.

  9. Note that this implies that the level of the WTP estimates for any household category would change if we changed the characteristics of the reference person. However, the difference in WTP between different household categories would be unaffected.

  10. That is, for a woman with the lowest level of education in the lowest income group, without children, living in the rural part of Denmark and aged under 50 years.

  11. For men, the difference in the WTP, before and after receiving information, was insignificant.

  12. Price information for chicken reared indoors was gathered from adverts in Danish newspapers in August 2008. The price premium is based on information from Gfk’s consumer panel for the period 2002–2006.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous referees and the editor for helpful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank Tove Christensen for contributing to the questionnaire.

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Correspondence to Jonas Nordström.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7 Estimated parameters

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Mørkbak, M.R., Nordström, J. The Impact of Information on Consumer Preferences for Different Animal Food Production Methods. J Consum Policy 32, 313–331 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-009-9106-9

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