Umeå Economic Studies, Department of Economics, Umeå University
No 724:
The Marginal Willingness-to-Pay for Health Related Food Characteristics
Linda Thunström ()
Abstract: With food, consumers often face a trade-off between taste
and nutrition. A priori, it is not obvious which would be more important to
the average consumer, so it is an empirical question how consumers value
food characteristics that simultaneously affect taste and nutritional
value. In this paper, Swedish consumer preferences regarding food
characteristics in breakfast cereals, hard bread and potato products are
analyzed. In particular, the value consumers attach to fat, fibre, salt and
sugar is studied, as well as the value of easily accessible nutritional
information provided by a nutrition symbol. The equations estimated are
derived from a hedonic price model. The price data originates from a
household panel and scanner data, whereas the corresponding data on food
characteristics was collected manually in supermarkets or from producers.
The value consumers attach to food characteristics are found to vary by
product and the results also imply that these values could be sensitive to
changes in the combination of characteristics in a product.
Keywords: hedonic pricing; willingness to pay; food characteristics; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: D10; I10; (follow links to similar papers)
26 pages, November 16, 2007
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