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AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY IN CONSUMERS' WILLINGNESS‐TO‐PAY FOR AN IRRADIATED MEAT PRODUCT
Author(s) -
GIAMALVA JOHN N.,
BAILEY WILLIAM C.,
REDFERN MARTIN
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of food safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1745-4565
pISSN - 0149-6085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4565.1997.tb00186.x
Subject(s) - willingness to pay , tobit model , environmental health , food products , product (mathematics) , business , agricultural science , food science , toxicology , economics , econometrics , medicine , biology , mathematics , microeconomics , geometry
In a nonhypothetical laboratory experiment, participants were willing to pay an average of $0.71 for the right to exchange a typical meat sandwich for a sandwich irradiated to eliminate the potential risk of foodborne bacteria. Forty‐one of sixty participants (68.3%) were willing to pay some positive amount. Tobit analysis was used in order to allow for the fact that Willingness To Pay (WTP) was censored at zero. WTP was interpreted as the demand for irradiation to control foodborne disease. A positive WTP was interpreted as acceptance of irradiation. The aggregated WTP greatly exceeds the estimated direct costs of foodborne disease, and the estimated costs of irradiation for many food products. There was a positive relationship between WTP and the perceived risk of foodborne disease, and a negative relationship between WTP and years of education.