Risk perception and consumer willingness to pay for certified beef in Spain

Food scares have increased consumer food safety concern, particularly for beef. Traceability and food quality labels have been put in place to communicate to consumers the safety characteristics of the specially labelled beef in hopes of recovering confidence and consumption. As a consequence, production costs have increased, and thereby consumer prices as well. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model capable of analyzing the main factors influencing consumers' willingness to pay for certified beef. A three-equation recursive model is jointly estimated which accounts for the main steps in the consumer decision process. Results indicate that income, level of beef consumption, the average price consumers pay for beef and the perception of beef safety are the main determinants of Spanish consumers' willingness to pay for certified beef. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.