Can Information about Health and Environment Beef Up the Demand for Meat Alternatives?

Title
Can Information about Health and Environment Beef Up the Demand for Meat Alternatives?
Paper authors
Stéphan Marette, Guy Millet
Date
Dec 23 2016
Description A lab experiment was conducted in France to evaluate the impact of different types of information on participants’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) and quantity choices for both beef burger meat and soy burger meat. Explanatory messages about the impact of beef and oy on health and environment were revealed to participants, before successive rounds of WTP determinations and quantity choices. Results show that the different WTP for beef are not statistically influenced by the successive rounds of messages. Conversely, messages significantly increase the WTP for soy meat, even if this effect is relatively weak. These explanatory messages also lead to weak changes in the chosen quantities of beef and soy. A last round with the introduction of a high-quality beef leads to a statistically significant increase in the WTP for beef. Moreover, the selected quantities between beef and soy almost return to the initial quantities, namely the ones chosen before the revelation of messages. This reversal of chosen quantities towards more beef compared to soy underlines the participants’sensitivity to beef quality, when meat substitutes are considered.
Category
Journal articles
URL
Corresponding Author(s)
Stéphan Marette
Authors at SUSFANS
JEL Code
C9, D8, I1
Keywords
experimental economics, meat consumption, sustainability, consumers’ preferences