Consumer Willingness to Pay Price Premium for Credence Attributes of Livestock Products A Meta-Analysis method

Abstract

Livestock production is increasingly being regarded as resource-intensive and is attracting concerns about animal welfare and environmental sustainability. As a result, consumer awareness of these issues has led to an increasing demand for products with high quality attributes that cannot be directly experienced or identified, namely credence attributes (CAs). To our knowledge, so far no study has systematically identified the value of price premium associated with credence attributes of livestock products. In an effort to understand this issue this study conducted a meta-analysis to examine consumers WTP for different credence attributes of livestock products based on a systematic review of relevant studies. Meta-regression models are used to control for the heterogeneity of WTP estimates and investigate factors that affect the estimation of WTP. There were 555 estimates derived from 94 papers reporting WTP. Meta-regression results established the presence of systematic WTP variation associated with types of products, CAs, and locations, yet also indicated that WTP is subject to systematic variation associated with study methodology. While results are promising with regard to the ability of research to provide insight regarding WTP for CAs, they also suggest that researchers should consider the potential for methodological effects when conducting empirical WTP analysis Acknowledgement