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Can product-information disclosure increase Chinese consumer’s willingness to pay for GM foods? The case of Fad-3 GM lamb

Qihui Chen (Department of Applied Economics and Center for Food and Health Economic Research, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China)
Gaoshuai Liu (Department of International Economy and Trade, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China)
Yumei Liu (China Agricultural University, Beijing, China)

China Agricultural Economic Review

ISSN: 1756-137X

Article publication date: 4 September 2017

605

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese consumers’ level of perception of genetically modified (GM) foods and the determinants of their willingness to pay (WTP) for Fad-3 GM lamb, a newly developed GM product.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a randomized choice experiment involving 576 consumers in Beijing, the authors adopt a double-bounded contingent valuation method to estimate consumers’ WTP for Fad-3 GM lamb, as well as the causal impact of (randomized) product-information disclosure on it.

Findings

The econometric result indicates that the randomly disclosed product information describing details about Fad-3 GM lamb, the potential risks associated with the consumption of it, and the related governmental regulation policies raised consumers’ WTP by 6.2 yuan per Jin (or US$2/kilogram).

Originality/value

This paper provides new experimental evidence of the effect of product-information disclosure on consumers’ WTP for a newly developed GM food product.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study is funded by a grant from China’s Ministry of Agriculture Breeding Genetically Modified New Species Major Specialty Project titled “The breeding of high-quality GM fleshy sheep species”, a grant from the National Genetically Modified Organisms Breeding Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China entitled “Fad-3 Genetically Modified Sheep Breeding and its Economic Analysis (2011ZX08008-003-01)”, and a grant from the Chinese Universities Scientific Fund (2017RW005). The authors thank Junfei Bai, Hans Binswanger, Wuyang Hu, Holly Wang, Zhihao Zheng, and other participants in the 6th IFPRI-CAER annual conference in Yangling, China for their helpful comments. The authors also thank Saiwei Li for excellent research assistant. All remaining errors are the authors.

Citation

Chen, Q., Liu, G. and Liu, Y. (2017), "Can product-information disclosure increase Chinese consumer’s willingness to pay for GM foods? The case of Fad-3 GM lamb", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 415-437. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-01-2017-0006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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