Rank-Ordered Analysis of Consumer Preferences for the Attributes of a Value-Added Biofuel Co-Product

Yejun Choi, Dayton Lambert, Kimberly L. Jensen, Christopher Clark, Burton English and McKenzie Thomas
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Yejun Choi: Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Kimberly L. Jensen: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37919, USA
McKenzie Thomas: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37919, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Biochar is a co-product of the production of advanced biofuels that sequesters carbon when used as a soil amendment. Gardening consumers are a potential market for biochar and their purchase of biochar-amended products could provide biofuel producers with an additional revenue stream. To better understand this opportunity, preferences for the attributes of potting soils amended with biochar were elicited using a best-worst scaling experiment administered in a survey of 880 Tennessee households. The attributes analyzed were whether the biochar was produced in Tennessee, certified as biobased, a coproduct of biofuel production, and produced from food waste, wood waste, agricultural by-product, or a non-food energy crop feedstock. The effects of consumer demographics and attitudes on preferences for the biochar attributes were also estimated. We tested the independence of irrelevant alternative assumption using a structured covariance matrix designed specifically to the survey’s structure. The results suggest that the attributes most likely to influence favorably consumers are production from agricultural by-product or wood waste feedstock. On the other hand, the attributes least likely to entice consumers are biochar produced in Tennessee or produced as a co-product of renewable fuel.

Keywords: biochar; best and worst scaling; IIA assumption; alternative specific rank ordered probit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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