Using a sample based on 268 questionnaires submitted to people attending the Acquatico Bellucci circus, Italy, this paper analyzes the circusgoers's preferences for circus animals. Results show that higher preferences for circus animals are related to frequency of consumption. However, differently from what commonly expected, more educated and younger people seem to be less sensitive to the claims of animal welfare organizations.demand; performing arts; Italy; attendance.

Zanola, Roberto

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
Dipartimento di Politiche Pubbliche e Scelte Collettive – POLIS 
Department of Public Policy and Public Choice – POLIS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Working paper n. 127 
 
December 2008 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Who likes circus animals? 
 
 
Roberto Zanola 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
UNIVERSITA’ DEL PIEMONTE ORIENTALE “Amedeo Avogadro”  ALESSANDRIA 
 
Periodico mensile on-line "POLIS Working Papers" - Iscrizione n.591 del 12/05/2006 - Tribunale di Alessandria 
 Who likes circus animals?
Roberto Zanola∗
University of Eastern Piedmont
Department of Public Policy and Public Choice, Italy
Rimini Center for Economic Analysis (RCEA), Italy
December 11, 2008
Abstract
Using a sample based on 268 questionnaires submitted to people attend-
ing the Acquatico Bellucci circus, Italy, this paper analyzes the circusgoers’s
preferences for circus animals. Results show that higher preferences for circus
animals are related to frequency of consumption.
However, diﬀerently from what commonly expected, more educated and
younger people seem to be less sensitive to the claims of animal welfare orga-
nizations.
JEL Classiﬁcation: C2; D2; Z1.
Key Words: circus; demand; performing arts; Italy; attendance.
∗A ﬁrst draft of this work was completed while I was visiting at University of York, Department
of Economics. Thanks are due to Andrew Jones. The usual disclaimers apply.
11I n t r o d u c t i o n
Animals play a vital role in the performances of traditional circuses. However, world-
wide there is a growing movement against the use of animals in the circus shows.
Many animal welfare compaigners want wild animals banned from circuses, claiming
it is undigniﬁed and wrong. Although this appears a questionable issue [Paladino,
1990; ECA, 2005], animal lobbies have induced Parlaments to produce more and
more stringent legislations on animal welfare. These regulations are likely to pre-
clude smaller circuses from having numbers with animals, as well as imposing growing
costs on bigger circus which will impact on future shows, undermining the possibility
for traditionl circuses to exist in the future.
Without going into the debate on animal rights, which is out of the scope of this
study, an implicit assumption in such a debate is that circusgoers like circus animals.
Is it true? The purpose of this paper is to empirical investigate such a question. To
this aim, a sample of 268 questionnaires submitted to people attending Acquatico
Bellucci circus in Alessandria (Italy) were used.
22 Method and data
Circusgoers’s preferences for circus animals are represented by a continuous latent
variable Y ∗. However, since these preferences are not directly observable, the ques-
tionaire responses, Y , are used as a proxy for such preferences. The impact of
independent variables on preferences for animal circus are assessed by applying the
generalized ordered logit model, which relaxes the assumption of the standard ordi-
nal regression analysis that the explanatory variables have equal eﬀects across the
levels of preference.
The generalized ordered logit model estimates a set of coeﬃcients for each of the
M −1 points at which the dependent variable can be dichotomized. It can be shown
that the probabilities that Y will take on each of the values 1,...,M are equal to
P (Yi =1 ) = 1− F
³
X
0
iβ1
´
P (Yi = j)=F
¡
Xiβj−1
¢
− F
¡
Xiβj
¢
j =2 ,...,M − 1
P (Yi = M)=F
¡
XiβM−1
¢
(1)
where β is a K × 1 vector, X contains K explanatory variables, and F (.) is the
cumulative logistic function.
The design for this study was based on a structured questionnaire survey con-
ducted in Alessandria (Italy), between 1 and 11 March 2007. A sample of people
attending Acquatico Bellucci circus, intendedt ob er e p r e s e n t a t i v eo fI t a l i a nc i r c u s -
goers [Zanola, 2008], received a self-reported questionnaire consisting of 12 questions.
268 questionnaires were completed. Table 1 summarizes the main statistics.
[Insert Table 1 about here]
The dependent variable, anima, measures the preferences of circusgoers for circus
animals. It is measured on a four-point scale with categories 1=no preference, 2=
3low preference, 3=moderate preference, 4=high preference. The independent
variables are gender, male, a dummy variable which assumes value of 1 if male, 0
otherwise; education, edu, a dummy which assumes value of 1 if high school educated
or higher, 0 otherwise; circusgoers age, young, a dummy which assume value of 1
if aged between 18 and 35 years old, 0 otherwise; younger than frequency, freq, a
discrete continuous variable which registers how many times the individual went to
circus within 3 years before.
43R e s u l t s
To evaluate the proportional odds assumption for the multivariate model, Brant test
is performed. It indicates that the proportional odds assumption did not hold for
some covariates. Hence, a generalized ordered logit model is estimated by using the
GOLOGIT2 routine [Williams, 2006] in STATA 10.0. Table 2 displays results.
[Insert Table 2 about here]
The empirical evidence clearly shows that covariates that we have identiﬁed play
a crucial role in shaping preferences for circus animals. In fact, positive coeﬃcients
indicate that higher values on the covariate make it more likely that respondent
will be in a higher category of Y than current one. Not surprisingly, gender is a
good predictor of preferences for circus animals. Culture and age are also good
predictors of preferences. Yet interestingly, the positive sign of both coeﬃcients is
not the one that we would expected. In fact, it is commonly assumed that younger
and more educated people are more sensitive to animal welfare claims, whereas
positive coeﬃcients indicate that higher value of the explanatory variables increase
the likelihood of being in the a higher category of preferences. For the unconstrained
explanatory variable, individuals become more supportive of circus animals with
increasing frequency, but the greatest eﬀect of frequency was to push individuals
towards the most extremely positive judgement.
Although the analysis of the impact of a change in covariate on the response vari-
able distribution using marginal probabilities is interesting in its own, the analysis
of marginal probabilities may reveal a subtler insight. To this aim, the MFX2 rou-
tine in STATA 10.0 is used to estimate the marginal probability eﬀects for a typical
consumer, deﬁned for every covariate by ﬁxing the rest of the covariates at their
mean (or their mode for categorial covariates). The results are summarized in Table
3.
5[Insert Table 3 about here]
Examining Table 3, we ﬁnd that a typical male consumer’s probability is 3.7% less
probable to report the preference for animal circus as low, and 8.6% more probable to
report high preference. Furthermore, individuals perceive signiﬁcantly higher values
of preferences whether more educated and younger. For instance, a typical educated
individual is 4,7% less likely to show low preferences, and 11% more likely to ﬁnd the
preference value high. Analogous results for the typical young consumer. Finally,
a typical user is 11% more likely to love circus animals, supporting the notion that
circus animal ’consumption’ is an experience goods, for which future demand relies
heavily on the perceived value of the experience after consumption.
64C o n c l u s i o n
This paper analyzed the preferences for circus animals by individuals who attended
circus. Empirical ﬁndings suggest some interesting insights. Higher preferences
for circus animals are related to frequency of consumption. However, diﬀerently
from what commonly expected, more educated and younger people seem to be less
sensitive to the claims of animal welfare organizations.
The market for circus is substantial worldwide. An understanding of the charac-
teristics of circusgoers’ preferences is undoubtedly useful to circus suppliers looking
to preserve and expand their markets. All together these results could be a key
concern for implementing such marketing strategies.
7References
ECA (2005), Animals in the circus. Telling the truth, European Circus Association.
Paladino, E. (1990), Circo e Animali, Ente Nazionale Circhi.
Pierre, G., Scarpetta, S. (2006), Employment protection: Do ﬁrms’ perceptions
match with legislation?, Economics Letters, 328-334.
Williams, R. (2006), Generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds models for
ordinal dependent variables, Stata Journal 6(1), 58-82.
Zanola, R. (2008), Major inﬂuences on circus attendance, Empirical Economics
(forthcoming).
8  9
Table 1. Preferences for circus animals 
 
Variable Obs  Mean  Std.  Dev.  Min  Max 
anima  233 2.7555  1.0928  1  4 
male  268 .4589  .4992  0  1 
edu  268 .6641  .4732  0  1 
young  268 .4179  .4941  0  1 
freq  260 1.1231  1.1425  0  3   10
Table 2. Preferences for circus animals 
 
anima Covariate  Coef.  Std.Dev. 
male  .4100*** .24551 
edu  .5570** .2656 
young  .5957** .2498 
freq  .2552 .1625 
1
+ 
cons  .4165 .3320 
male  .4100*** .2455 
edu  .5570** .2656 
young  .5957** .2498 
freq  .2285*** .1259 
2
++ 
cons  -.5904*** .3126 
male  .4100*** .2455 
edu  .5570** .2656 
young  .5957** .2498 
freq  .5314* .1285 
3
+++ 
cons  -2.3328* -3532 
  
Wald χ
2  28.61    
Number of Obs  230     
McFadden Pseudo R
2 .049     
+ The first panel contrasts category 1 with categories 2,3, and 4;  ++ the second panel contrast category 1 and 2 with 
categories 3 and 4; +++ the third panel contrasts category 1, 2, and 3 with category 4. *p<0.01, ** p<0.05, *** p<0.1.  
 
   11
Table 3. Marginal Probability Effects for Covariates 
 
anima Covariate  Coef.  Std.Dev. 
male  -.0585*** .03495 
edu  -.08621** .0442 
young  -.0844* -0351 
No preference 
freq  -.0369 .0231 
male  -.03681*** .0227 
edu  -.0467** .0221 
young  -.0532** .0236 
Low preference 
freq  -.0167 .0245 
male  .0096 .0090 
edu  .0228 .0177 
young  .0127 .0114 
Moderate preference 
freq  -.0567** .0266 
male  .0857*** .0516 
edu  .1101** .0497 
young  .1248** .0529 
High preference 
freq  .1103* .0263 
*p<0.01, ** p<0.05, *** p<0.1  
 
 
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Who likes circus animals?

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Who likes circus animals?

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