SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Moser, Riccarda; Raffaelli, Roberta; Notaro, Sandra.

In recent years, concerns for potential risks on human health related to the overuse of chemical pesticides have encouraged research of alternatives production methods as integrated pest management (IPM) and organic agriculture. Consumer preferences for these practices or for new product characteristics often have been evaluated using stated preference techniques such as Choice Experiment (CE). Nevertheless, it has been found that in these surveys respondents generally report higher hypothetical than real willingness to pay, providing the existence of the so-called “hypothetical bias”. While the presence of this bias has been widely reported in Contingent Valuation, its investigation in CE is still at the beginning. Moreover, in most of the cases, the...

THE INFLUENCE OF ATTRIBUTE CUTOFFS ON CONSUMERS’ CHOICES OF A FUNCTIONAL FOOD

Palavras-chave: Fruit purchasing behaviour; Production methods; Mitigation practices; Hypothetical bias; Real choice experiment; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; C35; Q18; D12; C93.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116426

Ding, Yulian; Veeman, Michele M.; Adamowicz, Wiktor L..

This study investigates evidence of non-compensatory preferences by incorporating attribute cutoffs into the modeling of consumer choices in the context of food with health-related attributes (omega-3 content) that may be associated with fortification or may result from genetic modification (GM). Data for this study were collected through a nation-wide internet-based survey drawn from a representative panel of Canadian households maintained by a major North American marketing firm. In addition to querying respondents on their perceptions and attitudes regarding food and health, choices of canola oils are elicited using a stated choice experiment in which product alternatives are identified based on attributes of price, country of origin, omega-3 content...

Can Co-Management Improve the Governance of A Common- Pool Resource? Lessons From A Framed Field Experiment in A Marine Protected Area in the Colombian Caribbean

Palavras-chave: Decision strategy; Attribute cutoff; Functional food; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; C25; C93; D1.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116423

Moreno-Sanchez, Rocio del Pilar; Maldonado, Jorge Higinio.

Complexities associated with the management of common pool resources (CPR) threaten governance at some marine protected areas (MPA). In this paper, using economic experimental games (EEG), we investigate the effects of both external regulation and the complementarities between internal regulation and non-coercive authority intervention—what we call co-management—on fishermen’s extraction decisions. We perform EEG with fishermen inhabiting the influence zone of an MPA in the Colombian Caribbean. The results show that co- management exhibits the best results, both in terms of resource sustainability and reduction in extraction, highlighting the importance of strategies that recognize communities as key actors in the decision-making process for the...

Estimating the Impact of Food and Drug Administration Regulation of Cigarette Package Warning Labels and the Potential Added Impact of Plain Packaging: Evidence From Experimental Auctions Among Adult Smokers

Palavras-chave: Common-pool resources; Governance; Co-management; Experimental economic games; Fisheries; Latin America.; Environmental Economics and Policy; C93; C72; D02; D70; Q01; Q22; Q28; C23; C25.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/60731

Thrasher, James F.; Rousu, Matthew C.; Hammond, David; Navarro, Ashley; Corrigan, Jay R..

Objective: To estimate differences in demand for cigarette packages with different packaging and health warning label formats. Methods: Adult smokers (n=404) in four states participated in experimental auctions. Participants bid on two of four experimental conditions, each involving a different health warning label format but with the same warning message: 1. text on 50% of pack side; 2. text on 50% of the pack front and back; 3. text with a graphic picture on 50% of the pack front and back; and 4. same as previous format, but without brand imagery. Results: Mean bids decreased across conditions (1. $3.52; 2. $3.43; 3. $3.11; 4. $2.93). Bivariate and multivariate random effects models indicated that there was no statistically significant difference...

Participation in Off-Farm Employment, Risk Preferences, and Weather Variability: The Case of Ethiopia

Palavras-chave: Experimental auctions; Cigarette labels; Grotesque images; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Health Economics and Policy; C93.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103169

Bezabih, Mintewab; Gebreegziabher, Zenebe; GebreMedhin, Liyousew; Kohlin, Gunnar.

This article assesses the relative importance of risk preferences and rainfall availability on households’ decision to engage in off-farm employment. Devoting time for off-farm activities, while it helps households earn additional incomes, involves a number of uncertainties. Unique panel data from Ethiopia which includes experimentally generated risk preference measures combined with longitudinal rainfall data is used in the analysis. An off farm participation decision and activity choice showed that both variability and reduced availability of rainfall as well as neutral risk preferences increase the likelihood of off-farm participation. From policy perspective, the results imply that expanding off farm opportunities could act as safety nets in the face...

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Off-farm employment; Labor supply; Rainfall variability/reduced availability; Risk preferences; GLLAMM; Ethiopia; Labor and Human Capital; Q13; D81; C35; C93.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/95784

Valuation of Safety-Branded and Traceable Free Range Chicken in Ha Noi: Results from a Field Experiment

Ifft, Jennifer; Roland-Holst, David W.; Zilberman, David.

The valuation of traceable or safety-branded food by consumers in developing countries affected by diseases such as avian influenza, or with food safety issues in general, is very difficult to identify. Products that have safety-branding are not common, and food is usually purchased by bargaining at informal markets. However, valuation of traceability has important implications for livestock disease policies as well as agricultural sector development. Through developing a short-term certified supply chain for free range chicken in Hanoi, we were able to conduct a combined field experiment and detailed household survey to measure the valuation of this type of poultry. We find that consumers in urban Hanoi on average have a welfare gain of about $1 per whole...

The Effect of Risk, Ambiguity and Coordination on Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change: A Framed Field Experiment

Palavras-chave: Field experiments; Avian influenza; Vietnam; Food safety; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; C93; D12; Q13; Q18.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49444

Alpizar, Francisco; Carlsson, Fredrik; Naranjo, Maria.

The risk of losses of income and productive means due to adverse weather associated to climate change can significantly differ between farmers sharing a productive landscape. It is important to learn more about how farmers react to different levels of risk, under measurable and unmeasurable uncertainty. Moreover, the costs associated to investments in reduced vulnerability to climatic events are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore these issues using a framed field experiment that captures realistically the main characteristics of production, and the likely weather related losses of premium coffee farmers in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. Given that the region recently was severely hit by an extreme, albeit very infrequent, climatic event, we expected to...

What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment

Palavras-chave: Risk Aversion; Ambiguity Aversion; Technology Adoption; Climate change; Field Experiment; Environmental Economics and Policy; C93; D81; H41; Q16; Q54.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/92708

Bertrand, Marianne; Karlan, Dean S.; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zinman, Jonathan.

Firms spend billions of dollars each year advertising consumer products in order to influence demand. Much of these outlays are on the creative design of advertising content. Creative content often uses nuances of presentation and framing that have large effects on consumer decision making in laboratory studies. But there is little field evidence on the effect of advertising content as it compares in magnitude to the effect of price. We analyze a direct mail field experiment in South Africa implemented by a consumer lender that randomized creative content and loan price simultaneously. We find that content has significant effects on demand. There is also some evidence that the magnitude of content sensitivity is large relative to price sensitivity....

Does Scarcity Exacerbate the Tragedy of the Commons? Evidence from Fishers’ Experimental Responses

Palavras-chave: Economics of advertising; Economics & psychology; Behavioral; Economics; Cues; Microfinance; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Marketing; D01; M31; M37; C93; D12; D14; D21; D81; D91; O12.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/47038

Maldonado, Jorge Higinio; Moreno-Sanchez, Rocio del Pilar.

Economic Experimental Games (EEGs), focused to analyze dilemmas associated with the use of common pool resources, have shown that individuals make extraction decisions that deviate from the suboptimal Nash equilibrium. However, few studies have analyzed whether these deviations towards the social optimum are affected as the stock of resource changes. Performing EEG with local fishermen, we test the hypothesis that the behavior of participants differs under a situation of abundance versus one of scarcity. Our findings show that under a situation of scarcity, players over-extract a given resource, and thus make decisions above the Nash equilibrium; in doing so, they obtain less profit, mine the others-regarding interest, and exacerbate the tragedy of the...

How appropriate are myopic optimization models to predict decision behaviour: A comparison between agent-based models and business management games

Palavras-chave: Tragedy of the commons intensified; Economic experimental games; Resource abundance; Resource scarcity; Dynamic effects; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Land Economics/Use; Public Economics; D01; D02; D03; O13; O54; Q01; Q22; C93; C72; C73; C23.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91170

Appel, Franziska; Musshoff, Oliver.

Agent-based models (ABM) are used in many cases of policy assessment in agriculture. But the behavioural assumptions of these models consider farmers as myopic optimizing profit maximizers. In this contribution we compare the behaviour of myopic computer agents with the behaviour of students playing a multi period business management game. We aim to answer the question, how far are agent-based models valid to map “real” human behaviour, so that ABM can be used well for policy impact assessment.

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Palavras-chave: Agent-based models; Business management games; Policy impact analysis; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C63; C93; D22; Q18.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/115994

Ashraf, Nava; Karlan, Dean S.; Yin, Wesley.

We designed a commitment savings product for a Philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology. The savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings, and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism. We conducted a baseline survey on 1777 existing or former clients of a bank. One month later, we offered the commitment product to a randomly chosen subset of 710 clients; 202 (28.4 percent) accepted the offer and opened the account. In the baseline survey, we asked hypothetical time discounting questions. Women who exhibited a lower discount rate for future relative to current tradeoffs, and hence potentially have a preference for commitment, were indeed...

Comparing the Effectiveness of Regulation and Pro-Social Emotions to Enhance Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from Fishing Communities in Colombia

Palavras-chave: Savings; Commitment; Hyperbolic preferences; Microfinance; Development economics; Program evaluation; Field experiment; Self-control; Financial Economics; C93; D01; D11; D12; D14; D81; D91; G11; O12.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28411

Lopez, Maria Claudia; Murphy, James J.; Spraggon, John M.; Stranlund, John K..

This paper presents the results from a series of framed field experiments conducted in fishing communities off the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The goal is to investigate the relative effectiveness of exogenous regulatory pressure and pro-social emotions in promoting cooperative behavior in a public goods context. The random public revelation of an individual’s contribution and its consequences for the rest of the group leads to significantly higher public good contributions and social welfare than regulatory pressure, even under regulations that are designed to motivate fully efficient contributions.

Formando microempresarias: impacto de la capacitación empresarial en las instituciones de microfinanzas y sus socias

Palavras-chave: Public goods; Field experiments; Pro-social emotions; Social dilemma; Regulation; Enforcement.; Environmental Economics and Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; C93; H41; Q20; Q28.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/53126

Karlan, Dean S.; Valdivia, Martin.

Los debates académicos y de políticas acerca de la actividad microempresarial se centran frecuentemente en las restricciones crediticias, asumiendo que los negocios se manejan de manera óptima dadas esas y otras restricciones. Los microempresarios, sin embargo, raramente tienen capacitación formal en gestión empresarial. Por su parte, un número creciente de instituciones de microfinanzas (IMF), en el Perú y el mundo, procura construir el capital humano de estos microempresarios para mejorar sus niveles de vida, contribuyendo a su misión de reducir la pobreza. Con ayuda de un diseño experimental, en este estudio medimos el impacto marginal de agregar un componente de capacitación en gestión empresarial a un programa de servicios financieros que atiende a...

What's Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market

Palavras-chave: Microempresarios; Microfinanzas; Pequeñas empresas; Mujeres; Capacitacion; Small enterprises; Training; Women; Peru; Financial Economics; C93; D12; D13; D21; I21; J24; O12.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91358

Bertrand, Marianne; Karlan, Dean S.; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zinman, Jonathan.

Numerous laboratory studies report on behaviors inconsistent with rational economic models. How much do these inconsistencies matter in natural settings, when consumers make large, real decisions and have the opportunity to learn from experiences? We report on a field experiment designed to address this question. Incumbent clients of a lender in South Africa were sent letters offering them large, short-term loans at randomly chosen interest rates. Psychological features on the letter, which did not affect offer terms or economic content, were also independently randomized. Consistent with standard economics, the interest rate significantly affected loan take-up. Inconsistent with standard economics, the psychological features also significantly affected...

Can Information Costs Affect Consumer Choice?—Nutritional Labels in a Supermarket Experiment—

Palavras-chave: Behavioral economics; Psychology; Microfinance; Marketing; Field experiment; Credit markets; Consumer/Household Economics; D01; C93; D12; D21; D81; D91; M37; O12.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28441

Kiesel, Kristin; Villas-Boas, Sofia Berto.

This paper investigates whether information costs under currently regulated nutritional labeling prevent consumers from making healthier food choices. We implement five nutritional shelf label treatments in a market-level experiment. These labels reduce information costs by highlighting and summarizing information available on the Nutritional Facts Panel. Following a difference-in-differences and synthetic control method approach, we analyze weekly store-level scanner data for microwave popcorn purchases from treatment and control stores. Our results suggest that consumer purchases are affected by information costs. Implemented low calorie and no trans fat labels increase sales. In contrast, implemented low fat labels decrease sales, suggesting that...

Eliciting Risk Preferences: A Field Experiment on a Sample of French Farmers

Palavras-chave: Nutritional labeling; Information cost; Scanner data; Market-level experiment; Difference-in-differences; Synthetic control method; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; C93; D01; D18; D83; L51.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116433

Bougherara, Douadia; Gassmann, Xavier; Piet, Laurent.

We designed a field experiment involving real payments to elicit farmers’ risk preferences. Farmers are a very interesting sample to study since risk has always played an important role in agricultural producers’ decisions. Besides, European farmers may face more risky situations in the future. In this context, it is very important for any economic analysis focusing on agriculture to correctly assess farmers’ behaviour in the face of different sources of risk. We test for two descriptions of farmers’ behaviour: expected utility and cumulative prospect theory. We use two elicitation methods based on the procedures of Holt and Laury (2002) and Tanaka et al. (2010) on a sample of 30 French farmers. The experiment consists in asking subjects to make series of...

The "more is less" phenomenon in Contingent and Inferred valuation

Palavras-chave: Risk Attitudes; Field Experiment; Farming; Risk and Uncertainty; C93; D81; Q10.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/114266

Stachtiaris, Spiros; Drichoutis, Andreas C.; Klonaris, Stathis.

2011) using the Contingent valuation (CV) as well as the Inferred valuation (IV) method (Lusk and Norwood 2009b). We find that when moving in the context of a familiar market for consumers (i.e., the food market) we only observe weak effects of inconsistencies. In addition, we find that the IV method is no better (and no worse) than the CV method in generating more consistent preference orderings. Surprisingly, we also find that the IV method generates higher valuations than CV, rendering one of its advantages of mitigating social desirability bias questionable.

None-of-These Bias in Stated Choice Experiments

Palavras-chave: Willingness-to-pay (WTP); Contingent Valuation (CV); Inferred Valuation(IV); Preference reversals; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; C9; C93; D12; Q51.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116013

Alfnes, Frode; Steine, Gro.

We conduct a within-sample test of hypothetical bias and parameter equality between a hypothetical stated choice (SC) experiment using pictures and a real choice (RC) experiments using products. With exception of the none-of-these alternative-specific dummy, we cannot reject parameter equality between the two datasets. However, when we estimate the models separately with no parameter restrictions, the SC experiment gave WTP estimates that were approximately 50 percent higher and marginal WTP estimates that were almost two times as high as the corresponding estimates from the RC experiment. However, even though the monetary value of the WTP disparity was large, the disparity between the WTP estimates from the two data sets was not statistically significant.

Does Limited Access at School Result in Compensation at Home? The Effect of Soft Drink Bans in Schools on Purchase Patterns Outside of Schools

Palavras-chave: Choice experiment; Hypothetical bias; Color; Mixed logit; Salmon; Willingness to pay; Consumer/Household Economics; C81; C93; D12; Q22.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24761

Huang, Rui; Kristin, Kiesel.

This paper investigates the effects of banning soft drinks in schools on purchases outside of school. We utilize unique household-level and store-level data sources in combination with time-series and cross-sectional variation of state-level regulations in a difference-in-differences (DD) approach. We detect a decrease in the overall trend in sales, but observe this downward trend in households with and without children, as well as in states with and without regulation. Controlling for advertising allows us to further reject that leading brands intensify their advertising efforts and target children to potentially offset their reduced presence at schools. Finally, we find no evidence of substitution effects among possible beverage product alternatives. Our...

Do Natural Disasters Affect Trust/Trustworthiness? Evidence from the 2010 Chilean Earthquake

Palavras-chave: Soft drink bans; Soft drink consumption; Scanner data; Schools; Regulation; Difference-in-differences; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; D12; D18; L51; C93.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116417

Fleming, David A.; Chong, Alberto E.; Bejarano, Hernan D..

A series of trust games were conducted in Chile to analyze whether the past 2010 earthquake affected trust and trustworthiness in rural communities. Results show that trust levels are invariant between villages affected by the earthquake and villages not affected by this shock (control group). However, we find statistical evidence that trustworthiness has diminished in areas affected by the earthquake. Results are relevant for policy regarding aid and recovery of communities affected by these types of disasters.