Does altruism play a role in determining U.S. consumer preferences and willingness to pay for natural and regionally produced beef?

Wendy Umberger, Dawn Thilmany and Amanda R. Smith
Additional contact information
Amanda R. Smith: Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Georgia-Tifton Campus, Tifton, GA 31793, Postal: Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Georgia-Tifton Campus, Tifton, GA 31793

Agribusiness, 2009, vol. 25, issue 2, 268-285

Abstract: An area of increasing differentiation among meat products relates to the source-of-origin and types of production methods used to raise the animals. Consumer data collected from a U.S. national online survey was used to estimate the factors helping explain consumers' willingness to purchase and pay a higher premium for two natural and regionally produced beef products: ground beef and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Choice rib eye steaks. Consumer preferences for natural and regionally produced beef are shown to be motivated by a combination of perceptions of personal benefits and altruistic factors. Additionally, the results of probit models indicate that the probability a consumer will pay more or less of a premium depends on purchase behavior and shopping location, stated importance of production attributes, awareness and interest in private and civic agricultural issues, in addition to some typical demographic variables such as income. [EconLit Citations: Q130, M130, Q180]. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/agr.20194 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:agribz:v:25:y:2009:i:2:p:268-285

DOI: 10.1002/agr.20194

Access Statistics for this article

Agribusiness is currently edited by Ronald W. Cotterill

More articles in Agribusiness from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().