IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/gewi16/244760.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Taste Trump Health? – The Effect Of Nutrient Profiles On Brand-Level Demand For Chips In The U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Staudigel, Matthias
  • Anders, Sven

Abstract

Recent controversial policy proposals have aimed at creating a healthier food supply by means of taxation, minimum quality standards or nutritional labeling. Yet the outcomes of such policies strongly depend on the competitive structures and thus substitution processes of individual products within categories, which are not well understood. The objective of this paper is to quantify the source and impact of differentiation in ingredient formulation and especially product health attributes on the competitive positioning of brands under heterogeneous consumer preferences. We employ Berry, Levinsohn and Pakes’ (1995) random-coefficient logit framework to estimate product-level demand for highly differentiated potato and tortilla chips in the U.S. We are specifically interested in the extent to which heterogeneous consumers respond to changes in product formulation, pricing and brand attributes. Our results support the unhealthy-tasty intuition hypothesis to a certain degree with consumers’ utility increasing in sodium and saturated fat levels but decreasing in energy and total fat content. Results further suggest strong impacts of price, brand, and flavor effects on band-level market shares. Our analysis underlines the trade-offs involved in food manufacturers’ decisions to reformulate products in order to comply with policy and public demands for healthier product options that do not sacrifice taste.

Suggested Citation

  • Staudigel, Matthias & Anders, Sven, 2016. "Does Taste Trump Health? – The Effect Of Nutrient Profiles On Brand-Level Demand For Chips In The U.S," 56th Annual Conference, Bonn, Germany, September 28-30, 2016 244760, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:gewi16:244760
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.244760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/244760/files/Staudigel.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.244760?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. Unnevehr, Laurian J. & Jagmanaite, Evelina, 2008. "Getting rid of trans fats in the US diet: Policies, incentives and progress," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 497-503, December.
    2. Øvrum, Arnstein & Alfnes, Frode & Almli, Valérie L. & Rickertsen, Kyrre, 2012. "Health information and diet choices: Results from a cheese experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 520-529.
    3. Reynaert, Mathias & Verboven, Frank, 2014. "Improving the performance of random coefficients demand models: The role of optimal instruments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 179(1), pages 83-98.
    4. Marette, Stéphan & Millet, Guy, 2014. "Economic benefits from promoting linseed in the diet of dairy cows for reducing methane emissions and improving milk quality," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 140-149.
    5. Vincent Réquillart & Louis-Georges Soler, 2014. "Is the reduction of chronic diseases related to food consumption in the hands of the food industry?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 41(3), pages 375-403.
    6. Disdier, Anne-Célia & Marette, Stéphan & Millet, Guy, 2013. "Are consumers concerned about palm oil? Evidence from a lab experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 180-189.
    7. Joris Pinkse & Margaret E. Slade & Craig Brett, 2002. "Spatial Price Competition: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(3), pages 1111-1153, May.
    8. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    9. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    10. Jerry A. Hausman, 1996. "Valuation of New Goods under Perfect and Imperfect Competition," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of New Goods, pages 207-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Pinkse, Joris & Slade, Margaret E., 2004. "Mergers, brand competition, and the price of a pint," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 617-643, June.
    12. Alessandro Bonanno, 2013. "Functional foods as differentiated products: the Italian yogurt market," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(1), pages 45-71, February.
    13. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Robert J. Gordon, 1996. "The Economics of New Goods," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bres96-1, March.
    14. Bitzios, Michael & Fraser, Iain & Haddock-Fraser, Janet, 2011. "Functional ingredients and food choice: Results from a dual-mode study employing means-end-chain analysis and a choice experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 714-724, October.
    15. Ying, Xiongwei & Anders, Sven M., 2013. "Competition between Private Label and National Brand for Health-differentiated Food Product: A Canadian Retailing Case," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151280, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Alessandro Bonanno & Rui Huang & Yizao Liu, 2015. "Editor's choice Simulating welfare effects of the European nutrition and health claims’ regulation: the Italian yogurt market," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 42(3), pages 499-533.
    17. Disdier, Anne-Célia & Marette, Stéphan & Millet, Guy, 2013. "Are consumers concerned about palm oil? Evidence from a lab experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 180-189.
    18. David W. Vincent, 2015. "The Berry–Levinsohn–Pakes estimator of the random-coefficients logit demand model," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 15(3), pages 854-880, September.
    19. Hellyer, Nicole Elizabeth & Fraser, Iain & Haddock-Fraser, Janet, 2012. "Food choice, health information and functional ingredients: An experimental auction employing bread," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 232-245.
    20. repec:hal:journl:halshs-00916437 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Staudigel, Matthias & Anders, Sven, 2016. "Does taste trump health? Effects of nutritional characteristics on brand-level demand for chips in the U.S," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235755, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Rojas, Christian, 2005. "Does the King Use Its Power? Price Competition in U.S. Brewing," Research Reports 25172, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    3. Alessandro Bonanno & Carlo Russo & Luisa Menapace, 2018. "Market power and bargaining in agrifood markets: A review of emerging topics and tools," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 6-23, December.
    4. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2021. "Foundations of Demand Estimation," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2301, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    5. Bokhari, Farasat A.S. & Mariuzzo, Franco, 2018. "Demand estimation and merger simulations for drugs: Logits v. AIDS," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 653-685.
    6. Rojas, Christian & Peterson, Everett, 2005. "Estimating Demand for Differentiated Products: The Case of Beer in the U.S," Research Reports 149023, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    7. Genakos, Christos D., 2004. "Differential merger effects: the case of the personal computer industry," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6726, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Rojas, Christian & Peterson, Everett B., 2008. "Demand for differentiated products: Price and advertising evidence from the U.S. beer market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 288-307, January.
    9. Dongling Huang & Christian Rojas & Frank Bass, 2008. "What Happens When Demand Is Estimated With A Misspecified Model?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 809-839, December.
    10. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    11. Richards, Timothy J. & Acharya, Ram N. & Kagan, Albert, 2008. "Spatial competition and market power in banking," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 436-454.
    12. Federico Ciliberto & GianCarlo Moschini & Edward D. Perry, 2019. "Valuing product innovation: genetically engineered varieties in US corn and soybeans," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(3), pages 615-644, September.
    13. Thomas E. Guerrero & C. Angelo Guevara & Elisabetta Cherchi & Juan de Dios Ortúzar, 2021. "Addressing endogeneity in strategic urban mode choice models," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 2081-2102, August.
    14. Zhu, Chen & Lopez, Rigoberto A. & Liu, Xiaoou, 2019. "Consumer responses to front-of-package labeling in the presence of information spillovers," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Carlos Pérez Montes, 2013. "The impact of interbank and public debt markets on the competition for bank deposits," Working Papers 1319, Banco de España.
    16. Amit Khandelwal, 2010. "The Long and Short (of) Quality Ladders," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(4), pages 1450-1476.
    17. Victor Aguirregabiria & Margaret Slade, 2017. "Empirical models of firms and industries," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1445-1488, December.
    18. Lein, Sarah Marit & Beck, Günter W., 2015. "Microeconometric evidence on demand-side real rigidity and implications for monetary non-neutrality," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113144, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Christos Genakos & Kai‐Uwe Kühn & John Van Reenen, 2018. "Leveraging Monopoly Power by Degrading Interoperability: Theory and Evidence from Computer Markets," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(340), pages 873-902, October.
    20. Mogens Fosgerau & Julien Monardo & André de Palma, 2019. "The Inverse Product Differentiation Logit Model," Working Papers hal-02183411, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Industrial Organization;
    All these keywords.

    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:gewi16:244760. 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/gewisea.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.