IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aawewp/37325.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Eco-Labeling Strategies: The Eco-Premium Puzzle In The Wine Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Delmas, Magali A.
  • Grant, Laura E.

Abstract

Eco-labeling signals that a product has been eco-certified. While there is increasing use of eco-labeling practices, there is still little understanding of the conditions under which eco-labels can command price premiums. In this paper, we argue that the certification of environmental practices by a third party should be analyzed as a strategy distinct from although related to the advertisement of the eco-certification through a label posted on the product. By assessing eco-labeling and eco-certification strategies separately, we are able to identify benefits associated with the certification process independently from those associated with the actual label. More specifically, we argue in the context of the wine industry that eco-certification can provide benefits, such as improved reputation in the industry or increased product quality, which can lead to a price premium without the need to use the eco-label. We estimate this price premium of wine due to the eco-certification of grapes using 13,400 observations of wine price, quality rating, varietals, vintage, and number of bottles produced, for the period 1998-2005. Overall, certifying wine increases the price by 13%, yet including an eco-label reduces the price by 20%. This result confirms the negative connotation associated by consumers with organic wine. The price premium of this luxury good due to certification acts independently from its label, a confounding result not previously demonstrated by related literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Delmas, Magali A. & Grant, Laura E., 2008. "Eco-Labeling Strategies: The Eco-Premium Puzzle In The Wine Industry," Working Papers 37325, American Association of Wine Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aawewp:37325
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.37325
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/37325/files/AAWE_WP13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.37325?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Konar, Shameek & Cohen, Mark A., 1997. "Information As Regulation: The Effect of Community Right to Know Laws on Toxic Emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 109-124, January.
    2. Loureiro, Maria L., 2003. "Rethinking new wines: implications of local and environmentally friendly labels," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(5-6), pages 547-560.
    3. Chung L. Huang & Biing-Hwan Lin, 2007. "A Hedonic Analysis of Fresh Tomato Prices among Regional Markets," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(4), pages 783-800.
    4. Teisl, Mario F. & Roe, Brian & Hicks, Robert L., 2002. "Can Eco-Labels Tune a Market? Evidence from Dolphin-Safe Labeling," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 339-359, May.
    5. Matthew J. Kotchen, 2006. "Green Markets and Private Provision of Public Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(4), pages 816-845, August.
    6. Cason, Timothy N. & Gangadharan, Lata, 2002. "Environmental Labeling and Incomplete Consumer Information in Laboratory Markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 113-134, January.
    7. Edward Oczkowski, 1994. "A Hedonic Price Function For Australian Premium Table Wine," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 38(1), pages 93-110, April.
    8. Huang, Chung L, 1996. "Consumer Preferences and Attitudes towards Organically Grown Produce," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 23(3), pages 331-342.
    9. Kotchen, Matthew J., 2005. "Impure public goods and the comparative statics of environmentally friendly consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 281-300, March.
    10. Oczkowski, Edward, 2001. "Hedonic Wine Price Functions and Measurement Error," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 77(239), pages 374-382, December.
    11. Cornes,Richard & Sandler,Todd, 1996. "The Theory of Externalities, Public Goods, and Club Goods," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521477185.
    12. Barla, Philippe, 2007. "ISO 14001 certification and environmental performance in Quebec's pulp and paper industry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 291-306, May.
    13. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    14. Rondinelli, Dennis & Vastag, Gyula, 2000. "Panacea, common sense, or just a label?: The value of ISO 14001 environmental management systems," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 499-510, October.
    15. Bjorner, Thomas Bue & Hansen, L.G.Lars Garn & Russell, Clifford S., 2004. "Environmental labeling and consumers' choice--an empirical analysis of the effect of the Nordic Swan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 411-434, May.
    16. Aaron K. Chatterji & David I. Levine & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 125-169, March.
    17. Magali Delmas & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho & Jay P. Shimshack, 2010. "Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence From The Electricity Industry," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 483-498, April.
    18. Michael J. Lenox, 2006. "The Role of Private Decentralized Institutions in Sustaining Industry Self-Regulation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(6), pages 677-690, December.
    19. Stefanie Kirchhoff, 2000. "Green Business and Blue Angels," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 15(4), pages 403-420, April.
    20. Loureiro, Maria L. & Lotade, Justus, 2005. "Do fair trade and eco-labels in coffee wake up the consumer conscience?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 129-138, April.
    21. Kennedy Peter W. & Laplante Benoit & Maxwell John, 1994. "Pollution Policy: the Role for Publicly Provided Information," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 31-43, January.
    22. Edward Oczkowski, 2001. "Hedonic Wine Price Functions and Measurement Error," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 77(239), pages 374-382, December.
    23. Nerlove, Marc, 1995. "Hedonic price functions and the measurement of preferences: The case of Swedish wine consumers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1697-1716, December.
    24. Ruihua Joy Jiang & Pratima Bansal, 2003. "Seeing the Need for ISO 14001," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 1047-1067, June.
    25. Darnall, Nicole & Henriques, Irene & Sadorsky, Perry, 2008. "Do environmental management systems improve business performance in an international setting?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 364-376, December.
    26. Combris, Pierre & Lecocq, Sebastien & Visser, Michael, 1997. "Estimation for a Hedonic Price Equation for Bordeaux Wine: Does Quality Matter?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 390-402, March.
    27. Lisette Ibanez & Gilles Grolleau, 2008. "Can Ecolabeling Schemes Preserve the Environment?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 233-249, June.
    28. David Weil & Archon Fung & Mary Graham & Elena Fagotto, 2006. "The effectiveness of regulatory disclosure policies," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 155-181.
    29. DeCanio, Stephen J., 1993. "Barriers within firms to energy-efficient investments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(9), pages 906-914, September.
    30. Ginger Zhe Jin & Phillip Leslie, 2003. "The Effect of Information on Product Quality: Evidence from Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 409-451.
    31. Paul Ferraro & Toshihiro Uchida & Jon Conrad, 2005. "Price Premiums for Eco-friendly Commodities: Are ‘Green’ Markets the Best Way to Protect Endangered Ecosystems?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 32(3), pages 419-438, November.
    32. Blamey, R. K. & Bennett, J. W. & Louviere, J. J. & Morrison, M. D. & Rolfe, J., 2000. "A test of policy labels in environmental choice modelling studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 269-286, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Magali Delmas & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho & Jay P. Shimshack, 2010. "Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence From The Electricity Industry," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 483-498, April.
    2. Delmas, Magali A. & Gergaud, Olivier & Lim, Jinghui, 2016. "Does Organic Wine Taste Better? An Analysis of Experts' Ratings," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 329-354, December.
    3. Bennear, Lori S. & Olmstead, Sheila M., 2008. "The impacts of the "right to know": Information disclosure and the violation of drinking water standards," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 117-130, September.
    4. Bjorner, Thomas Bue & Hansen, L.G.Lars Garn & Russell, Clifford S., 2004. "Environmental labeling and consumers' choice--an empirical analysis of the effect of the Nordic Swan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 411-434, May.
    5. Schamel, Guenter, 2002. "California Wine Winners: A Hedonic Analysis Of Regional And Winery Reputation Indicators," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19864, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Schamel, Günter, 2005. "German Wine: Measurement and Evaluation of Product Quality," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 40, March.
    7. Sanja Lutzeyer, 2008. "Estimating Hedonic Prices for Stellenbosch wine," Working Papers 15/2008, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    8. Kleemann, Linda, 2014. "Knowing where organic markets move next: An analysis of developing countries in the pineapple market," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-34.
    9. Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2009. "Too much of a good thing? Why altruism can harm the environment?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2145-2149, May.
    10. Dieter Pennerstorfer & Christoph Weiss & Andreas Huber, 2019. "Experts, Reputation and Umbrella Effects: Empirical Evidence from Wine Prices," Economics working papers 2019-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    11. Antonis Michis & Anna Markidou, 2013. "Determinants of retail wine prices: evidence from Cyprus," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 267-280, August.
    12. Belay, Dagim G. & Jensen, Jørgen D., 2020. "‘The scarlet letters’: Information disclosure and self-regulation: Evidence from antibiotic use in Denmark," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    13. Peter E. Robertson, 2007. "Global Resources and Eco‐labels: a Neutrality Result," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 735-743, September.
    14. Lisette Ibanez & Gilles Grolleau, 2008. "Can Ecolabeling Schemes Preserve the Environment?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 233-249, June.
    15. Günter Schamel & Kym Anderson, 2019. "Wine Quality and Varietal, Regional and Winery Reputations: Hedonic Prices for Australia and New Zealand," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Kym Anderson (ed.), The International Economics of Wine, chapter 10, pages 225-253, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Clark, Christopher D. & Russell, Clifford S., 2004. "Ecolabels And Economic Efficiency: Some Preliminary Results," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20338, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Dagher, Leila & Bird, Lori & Heeter, Jenny, 2017. "Residential green power demand in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1062-1068.
    18. Toshihiro Okubo, 2013. "Energy-saving regulations and commodity prices," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 15(1), pages 93-132, January.
    19. Ann L. Owen & Julio Videras & Stephen Wu, 2012. "More Information Is Not Always Better: The Case Of Voluntary Provision Of Environmental Quality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(3), pages 585-603, July.
    20. Li, Yi, 2020. "Competing eco-labels and product market competition," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demand and Price Analysis; Environmental Economics and Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aawewp:37325. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaweeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.