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The Marginal Willingness-to-Pay for Health Related Food Characteristics

Author

Listed:
  • Thunström, Linda

    (Department of Economics, Umeå University)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Thunström, Linda, 2007. "The Marginal Willingness-to-Pay for Health Related Food Characteristics," Umeå Economic Studies 724, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0724
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Kim, Sung-Yong & Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr. & Capps, Oral, Jr., 2000. "The Effect Of Food Label Use On Nutrient Intakes: An Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-17, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna Kristina Edenbrandt & Sinne Smed & Léon Jansen, 2018. "A hedonic analysis of nutrition labels across product types and countries," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 45(1), pages 101-120.
    2. Schollenberg, Linda, 2011. "So how much do you pay for ethical consumption? Estimating the hedonic price for Fair Trade coffee in Sweden," HUI Working Papers 31, HUI Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    hedonic pricing; willingness to pay; food characteristics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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