Dissertation
Essays on Consumer Preferences for Foods
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2013
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111216
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how food attributes affect consumers' preferences for food. Data was collected with experiments using different auction mechanisms, sensory evaluations, and surveys. The first study investigates whether consumers from different cultures are willing to pay more for a soda that is sweetened with sugar cane compared to high fructose corn syrup. Data was collected from a blind tasting and Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auction mechanism conducted in Pullman, WA and in Cali-Colombia. I estimate consumers' willingness to pay based on the bids submitted during the experiment.
The second study investigates how quality traits influence willingness to pay for apples. This study investigates consumers' willingness to pay under scenarios with three information treatments: 1) external quality traits are provided; 2) internal quality traits are provided; and 3) both external and internal quality traits are provided. Data was collected via tastings, second-price auctions, and consumer surveys conducted in Pullman, Washington; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Portland, Oregon. Consumers' willingness to pay is estimated based on the bids submitted during the experiment. The findings include that consumers are willing to pay more with additional information.
The third study analyzes consumers' rankings and ratings for apple quality traits based on the same survey utilized in the second study. Consumers ranked apple quality traits on a scale from 1 to 9, where 1 is the least important and 9 is the most important. Additionally, consumers rated the importance of quality traits on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 extremely unimportant and 7 is extremely important. We estimate two ordered probit models and find that consumers give more importance to flavor, crispness, external appearance, firmness, juiciness and internal appearance compared to phytonutrient content.
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Details
- Title
- Essays on Consumer Preferences for Foods
- Creators
- Lilian Andrea Carrillo-Rodriguez
- Contributors
- Jill J McCluskey (Advisor)Ron Mittelhammer (Committee Member)Karina Gallardo (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Economic Sciences, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 118
- Identifiers
- 99900581848401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation