Title: Consumers' price sensitivity and willingness to pay for milk of nature conservation: an approach to estimate demand elasticities

Authors: Antje Wirthgen

Addresses: University of Hannover, Germany

Abstract: Within the European Union, environmentally friendly produced food is receiving increasing interest. The main objective of this article is to identify and explain the willingness to pay (WTP) for milk of nature conservation. Furthermore these data were used to estimate the elasticity of the WTP. A consumer survey (n=600) was undertaken and the results analysed by means of descriptive and multivariate data analysis. The findings show that 70% of the interviewees are prepared to pay a price premium - on average even about 30%. However, looking at the elasticity analysis, it becomes clear that consumers react quite price-sensitively.

Keywords: consumers; price sensitivity; willingness to pay; nature conservation; demand elasticities; European Union; EU; environmentally-friendly food production; milk; sustainable agriculture; sustainable development; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2004.053922

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2004 Vol.6 No.1, pp.123 - 140

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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