Reflecting the growing interest from both consumers and policymakers, and building on recent developments in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, we evaluate consumer preferences for an archetypal traditional food product. Specifically we draw on stated preference data from a discrete choice experiment, considering the traditional Hungarian mangalitza salami. A WTP space specification of the generalized multinomial logit model is employed, which accounts for not only heterogeneity in preferences but also differences in the scale of the idiosyncratic error term. Results indicate that traditional food products can command a substantial premium, albeit contingent on effective quality certification, authentic product composition and effective choice of retail outlet. Promising consumer segments and policy implications are identified. (authors' abstract)

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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Ted C. Schroeder / Contingent valuation (CV), choice experiment (CE) and experimental auction (EA) or the combinations of the three methods are often used by researchers to elicit consumer willingness to pay for food attributes (food label). The main concern about these approaches is that different quality attributes of food are assumed independent. The problem of the independence assumption of a food attribute is that one attribute can signal information about another attribute or could be a proxy of overall product quality. In addition, in surveys consumers tend to be forced to focus on the limited attribute information that are presented by researchers, whereas in the real world, consumers have various sources of food quality information. The limited attributes provided in a survey may lead respondents to allocate their budgets to those limited attributes rather than allocate their budgets to a larger number of product attributes to truly reveal their preferences. The main objective of this study is to reveal the marginal impacts of additional food quality attributes on consumer WTP for food labels. Surveys containing a series of online CEs were collected to investigate the effects of additional beef steak attributes on consumer WTP in two different US markets. Both surveys included the same four questionnaires. Two questionnaires test the effect of additional attributes when no cue attributes are provided to the respondents, while the other two questionnaires test the effect of additional attributes when cue attributes are also presented. Every questionnaire contains two CEs, with the second CE having one more attribute than the first. Random parameters logit models are estimated for each CE in the four questionnaires with survey results from both samples, resulting in 16 sets of estimations altogether. The models with the different survey samples reveal consistent results regarding changes in WTP with more attributes added to the CEs. Consumer WTP for the most important attributes in the CE decreases when the number of attributes increases from three to four, while the WTP for the most important attributes increases when the number of attribute increase from four to five. The changes in the WTP for attributes depend on their relationships with the newly added attributes to the CEs and the number of attributes in CEs.

Contingent Valuation (CV) methods are a primary tool in environmental economics to ascertain non-use or other values not observable through existing market mechanisms. Because common CV approaches typically rely on hypothetical answers from surveys in order to generate welfare estimates, these are often labelled stated preferences. Results from stated preference methods often diverge from those obtained when actual preference or behavior are involved. This divergence is commonly known as Hypothetical Bias (HB). This dissertation addresses HB as it applies to environmental applications. To begin, a meta-analysis using a sample of studies many times larger than previous works was performed. Its results identify which study protocols exacerbate HB, and which may mitigate it. Furthermore, the meta-analysis establishes the efficacy of some popular techniques to mitigate HB. The second essay focuses on understanding and addressing two important topics to environmental economics, distance decay and charismatic species conservation. These effects have not been investigated with respect to HB. We implement a field survey of monarch and viceroy butterfly conservation, creating survey treatment conditions involving both real payment and hypothetical scenarios in order to establish the extent of HB. The key finding is that while HB is present for both butterflies, HB in distance decay exists for monarchs. There is also additional HB for monarchs compared to viceroys, which we attribute to the former’s charisma. The final endeavor studies the usefulness of consequentiality, a relatively new tactic to reduce HB. Consequentiality is the degree to which respondents believe their answers may affect policy outcomes. Relying on the monarch field survey, we find that using a technique known as ex ante consequentiality may exacerbate HB. Another approach known as ex post consequentiality is more effective at reducing the extent of HB in the data. Lastly, some elements of the studies’ results showcase that HB is not always present and can also explain some of the mixed results found on the efficacy of HB mitigating methods reported in previous studies.

The Florida Reef and associated human community form a unique socio-ecological system. While this system represents great value to society, it is exposed to high levels of vulnerability. Despite intense study of its elements, the system lacks conceptual integrity, its management is fragmented, and user valuation remains unclear. A survey using contingent valuation methods investigated stakeholders' attitudes and how much they are willing to pay for sustainable seafood, coral reef restoration, and research funding for coral reefs in southeastern Florida. Respondents expressed angst about climate change and reef conditions, and they connected reef degradation to land-based pollution and water quality. Regression analysis revealed status (income, education) as weak, indirect predictors of behavior, age as a moderating influence, and environmental and emotive factors as strong, direct predictors. One's relative attachment to ecosystems, such as coral reefs, is theorized as a motivation that displaces the expectations of traditional economic theory.

The Greater Everglades system imparts vital ecosystem services (ES) to South Florida residents including high quality drinking water supplies and a habitat for threatened and endangered species. As a result of the altered Everglades system and regional dynamics, restoration may either improve the provision of these services or impose a tradeoff between enhanced environmental goods and services and competing societal demands. The current study aims at understanding public preferences for restoration and generating willingness to pay (WTP) values for restored ES through the implementation of a discrete choice experiment. A previous study (Milon et al., 1999) generated WTP values amongst Floridians of up to $3.42 -$4.07 billion for full restoration over a 10-year period. We have collected data from 2,905 respondents taken from two samples who participated in an online survey designed to elicit the WTP values for selected ecological and social attributes included in the earlier study (Milon et al. 1999). We estimate that the Florida general public is willing to pay up to $854.1- $954.1 million over 10 years to avoid restrictions on their water usage and up to $90.8- $183.7 million over 10 years to restore the hydrological flow within the Water Conservation Area.

This diploma thesis is concerned with the use of the choice experiment method for modelling travel behaviour. The main scope of this diploma thesis is to find the main attributes for the individual's decision making about the student's choice of mean of transport. The models have been applied to long intercity trips between Prague and Brno. The model specification combines trip-based characteristics with socioeconomic characteristics. There are numerous European and US studies which have been conducted in a national context. In recent years, studies have been implemented also in the Czech Republic, but none of them focus on the specific segment of students. The principles of the choice experiment come out from the Lancaster' characteristics theory of value and random utility theory. The multinominal logit is used to the choice experiment analysis.

This study determines consumer demand for staple food crops biofortified with micronutrients in three sub-Saharan African countries. Specifically, the study investigates how the choice of a valuation technique for a nonmarket good or new product, and gender, influence acceptance of biofortified food crops. Biofortification, a new public health intervention for alleviating micronutrient deficiency problems in developing countries, is achieved by enhancing the micronutrient content of staple food crops using conventional plant breeding or biotechnology. The rural poor in developing countries are likely to benefit most from biofortification, for two main reasons. Firstly, their diets are primarily comprised of staple foods that are usually poor sources of micronutrients. Secondly, they have limited access to fortified food products, mineral and vitamin supplements. The novel property of biofortification, however, has been associated with changes in the intrinsic properties of staple food crops that may not be familiar to consumers. Thus, knowing consumers’ attitudes and potential reactions to such changes in their staple food crops has been important to researchers and marketers alike. The study employs hedonic evaluations and incentive-compatible economic experimental data from HarvestPlus that aimed at determining consumer acceptance of micronutrient biofortified staple food crops in three sub-Saharan countries, i.e., Nigeria, Rwanda, and Zambia. The first objective compares the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) mechanism to the non-hypothetical choice experiment (nHCE) in revealing the willingness to pay (WTP) for a new maize variety biofortified with vitamin A, under a field setting in Zambia. A mixed logit model was used to determine consumers’ WTP for the biofortified orange maize, relative to the two local maize varieties in the nHCE. While a symmetrically censored least square (SCLS) model was used to determine consumers’ WTP for the biofortified orange maize in the BDM experiment. The results show that the nHCE yielded significantly higher WTP estimates than that from the BDM mechanism. The second objective, related to the first, explored potential reasons for the WTP disparity between the BDM and the nHCE. The results indicate that accounting for additional training in the BDM experiment and lexicographic behaviour in the nHCE, together resulted in a decrease by half in the WTP estimates difference between the two methods. This difference, however, remains statistically significant. The third objective determined whether the gender of the decision-maker is important in determining consumer’s attitudes and behaviour towards biofortified food crops. Specifically, the study explores gender differences in hedonic preferences and consumer valuations of food products made from biofortified food crops. Emphasis was placed on the statistical analysis methods that incorporate gender while fully accounting for sources of both the observed and unobserved heterogeneity across gender. Results suggest that the gender of the decision-maker may be an important factor in both hedonic preferences and WTP for biofortified food crops, although the results varied across three countries. In Zambia and Rwanda, gender differences were observed in hedonic preferences for vitamin A-biofortified orange maize and biofortified iron beans respectively, while no evidence of gender differences was observed in hedonic preferences for vitamin A biofortified cassava in Nigeria. On the other hand, gender differences in WTP for biofortified foods were observed across the three countries in the respective biofortified food crops. While it is not yet clear how the BDM and the nHCE can result in significantly different empirical estimates under similar conditions, these results suggest the solution could lie in controlling for design effects from the two techniques. Similarly, controlling for gender differences not only in the outcome variable but also in its determinants may be necessary to attain valid estimates of consumer acceptance of biofortified foods. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / PhD / Unrestricted

To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3 in developing countries, Good health and wellbeing for all, the health workforce is vital however the unpopularity of rural medical practice results in widening healthcare inequalities between urban and rural areas. This study determined the heterogeneity in valuations for rural facility attributes by final year medical students at one South African public university to inform cost-effective recruitment policy recommendations. Focus groups conducted identified facility attributes, a D-efficient design was generated with 15 choice sets, each with two rural hospital alternatives and no opt-out option. An online, unlabelled discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted, the results effects coded, and mixed logit models applied. The final sample size was 193 (86,16% of the class), majority female 130 (66.33%), with urban origins 176 (89.80%), unmarried 183 (93.37%) and without children 193 (98.47%). Most had undergraduate rural medicine exposure 110 (56.12%) and intended to specialise 109 (55.61%). The main-effects mixed logit found advanced practical experience, hospital safety, correctly fitted personal protective equipment (PPE) and availability of basic resources the highest weighted attributes with their mean utilities increasing by 0.82, 0.64, 0.62 and 0.52 respectively (p=0.000). In contrast, increases in rural allowance and the provision of housing provided smaller mean utility increases of 0.001 (p<0.01) and 0.09 (p<0.05) respectively. The interaction terms; female, general practise and prior rural medicine exposure, were associated with higher weighting for hospital safety, mean utility increases 1.59, 1.82, 1.42 respectively (p=0.000). Participants were willing to pay ZAR 2636.45 monthly (95%CI: 1398.55;3874.355) to gain advanced practical experience (equivalent to 65.91% of current rural allowance). Medical students’ facility preferences have been found to be influenced by their gender, career aspirations and prior experienced with rural medicine. The policy recommendations derived from this research include publicising rural health facility “draw-cards” among medical graduates, such as the opportunity to gain practical experience, improving the physical and occupational safety at rural health facilities and providing greater transparency about rural facility attributes to medical graduates.

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