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Article
The Value of Consumers of Genetically Modified Food Labels in a Market with Diverse Information: Evidence from Experimental Auctions
Economic Staff Paper Series
  • Wallace E. Huffman, Iowa State University
  • Jason F. Shogren, University of Wyoming
  • Matthew Rousu, Iowa State University
  • Abe Tegene, United States Department of Agriculture
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
12-1-2001
Number
345
Abstract
When a food item might be genetically modified (GM) and divergent information about risks and benefits exists, do U.S. consumers value information provided by a label? This paper addresses this question by designing and conducting an experimental auction to elicit consumers' willingness to pay for both GM-labeled and standard-labeled foods. The evidence gathered for vegetable oil, tortilla chips, and potatoes shows that labels matter, and in particular, consumers werewilling to pay about a 14 percent premium for food items they perceived as non-GM. We found that women and men have similar reactions to the GM-food labels, butthe sequencing of food labels, i.e., seeing GM-labels first orsecond, was statistically significant. If consumers bid onfoods with GM-food labels in the first oftwo rounds ofbidding, they on average reduced their bids.
Citation Information
Wallace E. Huffman, Jason F. Shogren, Matthew Rousu and Abe Tegene. "The Value of Consumers of Genetically Modified Food Labels in a Market with Diverse Information: Evidence from Experimental Auctions" (2001)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/wallace-huffman/50/