Fairness and food choice

Although experimental studies have reported a wide array of other-regarding behavior, the pervasiveness of such behavior in the field is an open question. Using a stated-preference experiment, we first estimate people's preferences, when purchasing food products, for the distribution of benefits accruing to participants in the food supply chain. Although none of the existing fairness models exhibit much predictive power, we find that people are in-fact concerned about the distribution of benefits resulting from food purchases, and that modifications to the models to fit the food context significantly improves explanatory power. Finally, we find that the measured preferences, along with elicited beliefs are significant predictors of people's willingness-to-pay a premium for organic food. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.