IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/anr/reseco/v10y2018p65-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Separating Myth from Reality: An Analysis of Socially Acceptable Credence Attributes

Author

Listed:
  • Jayson L. Lusk

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA)

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in food characteristics that are broadly classified here as socially acceptable credence attributes. This review considers several demand-side issues associated with the economic analysis of these attributes. First, despite ample research and media discussion suggesting strong preference for these food attributes, market shares remain low. Hypothetical bias and social desirability bias likely play a prominent role in explaining this disconnect. There has also been an increase in government and food industry regulation aimed at socially acceptable credence attributes, and this article considers why public votes and policy positions appear discordant with retail shopping behavior. One set of policy proposals involves more information disclosure related to such attributes; however, the welfare economics associated with information provision is not straightforward. While much has been learned about consumers? stated willingness-to-pay for socially acceptable credence attributes, this review suggests that more research is needed to understand the current environment surrounding these food characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayson L. Lusk, 2018. "Separating Myth from Reality: An Analysis of Socially Acceptable Credence Attributes," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 65-82, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:anr:reseco:v:10:y:2018:p:65-82
    DOI: 10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023153
    Download Restriction: Full text downloads are only available to subscribers. Visit the abstract page for more information.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023153?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Del Giudice, Teresa & Cavallo, Carla & Vecchio, Riccardo, 2018. "Credence Attributes, Consumers Trust and Sensory Expectations in Modern Food Market: Is there a Need to Redefine their Role?," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 9(4), August.
    2. repec:ags:aaea22:335587 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Malone, Trey & Schaefer, K. Aleks & Lusk, Jayson L., 2021. "Unscrambling U.S. egg supply chains amid COVID-19," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    4. Koen Deconinck & Marion Jansen & Carla Barisone, 2023. "Fast and furious: the rise of environmental impact reporting in food systems," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(4), pages 1310-1337.
    5. De Bauw, Michiel & Franssens, Samuel & Vranken, Liesbet, 2022. "Trading off environmental attributes in food consumption choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Deka, Anubrata & Yiannaka, Amalia & Giannakas, Konstantinos, 2021. "The Economic Impacts of Private Politics and Corporate Social Responsibility on Food Fraud," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 314030, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Lusk, Jayson L. & Tonsor, Glynn T. & Schroeder, Ted C. & Hayes, Dermot J., 2018. "Effect of government quality grade labels on consumer demand for pork chops in the short and long run," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 91-102.
    8. Torres, Ariana P., . "Research Report: For Young Americans, Sustainable Is Not Organic," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 51(1).
    9. Giovanna Piracci & Emilia Lamonaca & Fabio Gaetano Santeramo & Fabio Boncinelli & Leonardo Casini, 2024. "On the willingness to pay for food sustainability labelling: A meta‐analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 55(2), pages 329-345, March.
    10. Francisco Scott & Juan P. Sesmero, 2022. "Market and welfare effects of quality misperception in food labels," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(5), pages 1747-1769, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ballot initiative; labels; organic; social desirability bias; warm glow; willingness-to-pay;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    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:anr:reseco:v:10:y:2018:p:65-82. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: http://www.annualreviews.org (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.annualreviews.org .

    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.