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European Review of Agricultural Economics Advance Access originally published online on August 20, 2009
European Review of Agricultural Economics 2009 36(3):321-341; doi:10.1093/erae/jbp023
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© Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2009; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Eco-labelled food products: what are consumers paying for?

Douadia Bougheraraa and Pierre Combrisb

a INRA, Rennes, France
b INRA, Ivry-sur-Seine, France

Corresponding author: Douadia Bougherara, INRA, 4 allée Bobierre, Rennes Cedex 35011, France. Telephone: +33-223485382. Fax: +33-223485380. Email: douadia.bougherara{at}rennes.inra.fr

Received January 2008; final version received June 2009

The paper investigates whether the premium consumers are willing to pay for an eco-labelled product is driven by selfish or altruistic motives. Using an incentive-compatible experiment with both a within- and a between-subject design, we study the effect on this premium of information stating that eco-friendly products do not necessarily lead to higher private benefits. We find that this information does not affect buying prices in the within-subject experiment. This suggests that consumers’ willingness to pay for the eco-labelled product does not derive from perceived higher taste or safety attributes but from other motives. These results are confirmed in the between-subject design where we find that information affects buying prices for the eco-friendly product but also for the control product in the between-subject experiment.

Keywords: willingness to pay, eco-label, experimental economics, Becker–DeGroot–Marschak

JEL classification: C9, D12, D83


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