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The Importance of Taste for Food Demand and the Experienced Taste Effect of Healthy Labels – An Experiment on Potato Chips and Bread

Thunström, Linda and Nordström, Jonas LU (2014) In Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
Abstract
This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand,as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 25 euro cents. The estimated effect from taste on bread demand is smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence

suggests that demand for chips and bread is unaffected by... (More)
This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand,as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 25 euro cents. The estimated effect from taste on bread demand is smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence

suggests that demand for chips and bread is unaffected by nutrition – the effect of the healthy label on WTP is not statistically significant. Finally, we find that consumers’ experienced taste of a food is unaffected by the food carrying a healthy label. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
willingness-to-pay for food, revealed preferences, taste, non-intrinsic value, healthy label
in
Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
issue
13
pages
20 pages
publisher
Department of Economics, Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c0942537-859a-4876-8601-32cfba830aaa (old id 4437349)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 10:17:47
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:57:59
@misc{c0942537-859a-4876-8601-32cfba830aaa,
  abstract     = {{This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand,as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 25 euro cents. The estimated effect from taste on bread demand is smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence<br/><br>
suggests that demand for chips and bread is unaffected by nutrition – the effect of the healthy label on WTP is not statistically significant. Finally, we find that consumers’ experienced taste of a food is unaffected by the food carrying a healthy label.}},
  author       = {{Thunström, Linda and Nordström, Jonas}},
  keywords     = {{willingness-to-pay for food; revealed preferences; taste; non-intrinsic value; healthy label}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{13}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University}},
  title        = {{The Importance of Taste for Food Demand and the Experienced Taste Effect of Healthy Labels – An Experiment on Potato Chips and Bread}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5507491/4437350.pdf}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}