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How do consumers in developed countries value the environment and workers’ social rights in developing countries?

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  • Disdier, Anne-Célia
  • Marette, Stéphan

Abstract

This paper uses a lab experiment to investigate developed countries’ consumer valuations of characteristics linked to the environment and workers’ social rights in developing countries. It focuses on seafood products and distinguishes between regular, environmentally friendly and fair trade varieties. Consumer valuations are elicited with a multiple price list. Results show that environmental and social labels have similar effects on participant willingness-to-pay when they are first presented. Using welfare variation coming from the labels, we also show that the absence of negative information linked to the regular variety may lead to an underestimation of the value of information associated with the label.

Suggested Citation

  • Disdier, Anne-Célia & Marette, Stéphan, 2012. "How do consumers in developed countries value the environment and workers’ social rights in developing countries?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:37:y:2012:i:1:p:1-11
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2011.10.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Schuster, Monica & Maertens, Miet, 2015. "Worker Empowerment through Labor Standards. Evidence from the Peruvian Horticultural Export Sector," Working Papers 208142, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    2. Patrice Cassagnard & Tendai Espinosa, 2022. "From boycott to buycott: is activism from the North good for the South?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(4), pages 1107-1135, November.
    3. John C. Beghin & Miet Maertens & Johan Swinnen, 2017. "Nontariff Measures and Standards in Trade and Global Value Chains," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 2, pages 13-38, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Romina Santi & Paola Garrone & Mattia Iannantuoni & Barbara Del Curto, 2022. "Sustainable Food Packaging: An Integrative Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, June.
    5. Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu & Romain Craste & Bengt Kriström & Pere Riera, 2014. "Non-market valuation in France: An overview of the research activity," Working Papers hal-01087365, HAL.
    6. Patrice CASSAGNARD & Tendai ESPINOSA, 2019. "From Boycott to Buycott: Is Activism from the North Good for the South?," Working Papers 2019-2020_3, CATT - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, revised Dec 2019.
    7. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "Relevance of potential supply structures in frameworks involving consumer's private information: the case of fair trade," Working Papers hal-02937902, HAL.
    8. Florence TOUYA, 2019. "Relationships and Nature of Contracts in the Distribution Structure for Responsible Trade," Working Papers 2018-2019_10, CATT - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, revised Oct 2019.
    9. von Grafenstein, Liza & Iweala, Sarah & Ruml, Anette, 2021. "Information Source and Content – Drivers for Consumers’ Valuation of Fairly Traded Foods," Sustainable Food Systems Discussion Papers 317123, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    10. Schuster, Monica & Maertens, Miet, 2014. "Do labor standards benefit workers in horticultural export chains in Peru?," Working Papers 191037, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    11. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "Relationships and nature of contracts in the distribution structure for responsible trade," Working papers of CATT hal-02937865, HAL.
    12. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "Relationships and nature of contracts in the distribution structure for responsible trade," Working Papers hal-02937865, HAL.
    13. Patrice Cassagnard & Tendai Espinosa, 2019. "From Boycott to Buycott: Is Activism from the North Good for the South?," Working Papers hal-02623685, HAL.
    14. Florence TOUYA, 2019. "Relevance of Potential Supply Structures in Frameworks involving Consumer's private Information: the Case of Fair Trade," Working Papers 2018-2019_12, CATT - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, revised Aug 2019.
    15. Marette Stéphan, 2016. "Non-Tariff Measures When Alternative Regulatory Tools Can Be Chosen," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, May.
    16. Vlaeminck, Pieter & Vranken, Liesbet & Van Den Broeck, Goedele & Vande Velde, Katrien & Raymaekers, Karen & Maertens, Miet, 2015. "Farmers’ preferences for Fair Trade contracting in Benin," Working Papers 225931, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    17. Annalisa Zezza & Federica Demaria & Maria Rosaria Pupo d'Andrea & Jo Swinnen & Giulia Meloni & Senne Vandevelde & Alessandro Olper & Daniele Curzi & Valentina Raimondi & Sophie Drogue, 2018. "Research for AGRI Committee - Agricultural trade: assessing reciprocity of standards," Working Papers hal-02787948, HAL.
    18. John C. Beghin & Miet Maertens & Johan Swinnen, 2017. "Nontariff Measures and Standards in Trade and Global Value Chains," World Scientific Book Chapters,in: Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 2, pages 13-38 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "Relevance of potential supply structures in frameworks involving consumer's private information: the case of fair trade," Working papers of CATT hal-02937902, HAL.
    20. Djin Gie Liem & Giovanni M. Turchini & Uracha Wanich & Russell Keast, 2018. "Sustainability Descriptive Labels on Farmed Salmon: Do Young Educated Consumers Like It More?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-11, July.
    21. Patrice Cassagnard & Tendai Espinosa, 2019. "From Boycott to Buycott: Is Activism from the North Good for the South?," Working papers of CATT hal-02623685, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Label; Willingness-to-pay; Multiple price list; Value of information; Seafood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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