The Battle of Taste Buds and Environmental Convictions : Which One Wins ?

Much has been said about ecolabeling in the last few years, with several studies investigating hypothetical consumer demand for ecolabeled seafood products, where the label indicates no overfishing of the stocks. Most studies have focused on consumers choosing between labeled and unlabeled products of the same species. In a recent survey done in the US, consumers were asked to trade-off amongst seafood products in which there were 4 different species, ecolabeled and not, and 3 prices. The purpose was to see if taste buds rule consumer choices at the expense of environmental convictions, and what role prices play in product choices. The data are estimated using a rank-ordered logit model in which the rankings of products are determined by product characteristics and consumer characteristics. Results support the notion that consumers buy according to their taste buds.