Campus Units
Economics
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
4-2002
Journal or Book Title
Choices
First Page or Article ID Number
16
Last Page
21
Abstract
Over a decade ago, we became interested in how consumers react to food safety and new food technologies. This led to a series of laboratory experiments that asked people to reveal their preferences in an auction environment in which they spent real money and consumed the actual food products. The auction environment is a surrogate market conducted under laboratory conditions of control and repetition. People came to a laboratory setting (a university taste-testing lab), and were asked to bid in an auction offering foods with different risks of foodborne illness. The auction was specifically designed to give people an incentive to tell the truth about their preferences for safer food.
The lab/auction model forced people to make real economic commitments, albeit in a setting more stylized than a retail store.
These experimental procedures have helped investigators learn things about consumer behavior toward food safety that would have been impossible to discover using any other procedure. This article describes some of the findings from the program, along with what insights can or cannot be learned in a laboratory environment.
Copyright Owner
Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
Copyright Date
2002
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Shogren, Jason F.; Hayes, Dermot J.; Fox, John A.; and Cherry, Todd L., "Auctions 101: Lessons from a Decade in the Lab. What Am I Bid for ...Safer Food?" (2002). Economics Publications. 513.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_las_pubs/513
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Food Studies Commons, Growth and Development Commons, Health Economics Commons, Industrial Organization Commons, Regional Economics Commons
Comments
This is an article from Choices, 2002; 16-21. Posted with permission.