Environmental labelling and consumption changes: A food choice experiment

Laurent Muller (), Anne Lacroix and Bernard Ruffieux
Additional contact information
Laurent Muller: GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019]
Bernard Ruffieux: GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019], Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This study examines how environment-related food labels affect shopping behaviour. Using an experimental store consisting of nearly 300 available food items, we observe the food purchases of consumers before and after each product is tagged with one of three environmental labels: single traffic lights, multiple traffic lights and the kilometric format. The kilometric format indicates the greenhouse gas emissions for each product by indicating the equivalent number of kilometres driven by an average car. The other two formats are based on the traffic-light rating system used for nutrients by the British Food Standard Agency. Multiple traffic lights present three traffic lights simultaneously: one each for greenhouse gas emissions, water eutrophication and air acidity. The single traffic light label displays one unique traffic light for greenhouse gas emissions. All three types of environmental labels lead consumers to purchase more environmentally friendly food baskets (i.e., significant decreases in carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide emissions). Labelling, however, does not affect the price of selected food baskets (in Euros per 100 g) or their nutritional content. By generating more product substitutions between unlabelled and labelled baskets, multiple traffic lights are more effective in reducing GHG emissions, eutrophication and acidification.

Keywords: Greenhouse gas emissions; Food environment; Labelling; Framed-field experiment; comportement du consommateur; gas à effet de serre; economie expérimentale; Etiquetage nutritionnel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-03-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Published in Environmental and Resource Economics, 2019, 73 (online 8 March), pp.871-897. ⟨10.1007/s10640-019-00328-9⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Environmental Labelling and Consumption Changes: A Food Choice Experiment (2019)
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:hal:journl:hal-02065189

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-019-00328-9

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().