Is Marine Stewardship Council's ecolabel a rising tide for all? Consumers’ willingness to pay for origin-differentiated ecolabeled canned tuna

Kar H. Lim; Wuyang Hu; Rodolfo M. Nayga

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2018.07.015

Is Marine Stewardship Council's ecolabel a rising tide for all? Consumers’ willingness to pay for origin-differentiated ecolabeled canned tuna

Kar H. Lim, Wuyang Hu, Rodolfo M. Nayga

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) sustainable seafood ecolabel covers about 10% of total seafood catch globally. Despite its prevalence, consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for MSC-certified imported seafood is not well understood. Using a choice experiment conducted with an American-consumers sample, this study measures the differences in WTP for American, Ecuadorian, and Vietnamese canned tuna. The results noted two things. First, the ecolabel induces country-specific effects, where the marginal WTP for the MSC label is higher for the imported products than for the domestic product; second, consumers prefer domestic products ceteris paribus, nevertheless, the premium of the ecolabel—when attached to the imported products—may partially eclipse preference for domestic products without the ecolabel. The results imply that the MSC ecolabel may generate a more favorable effect when applied to products from developing countries.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	18-26
Number of pages	9
Journal	Marine Policy
Volume	96
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2018.07.015
Publication status	Published - 2018 Oct

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project is supported by the start-up fund of College of Agriculture at the Tennessee State University , the Tyson Chair Endowment at the University of Arkansas , and Korea University Special Research Funding. We would like to thank the Marine Stewardship Council for allowing the use their official logo in the experiment. In addition, we thank Carola Grebitus and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and contributions to the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018

Keywords

Country of origin
D12
Ecolabel
Interaction effect
Marine Stewardship Council
Q13
Q22
Q56
Sustainable seafood
Willingness to pay

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Aquatic Science
General Environmental Science
Economics and Econometrics
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Law

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.marpol.2018.07.015

Cite this

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title = "Is Marine Stewardship Council's ecolabel a rising tide for all? Consumers{\textquoteright} willingness to pay for origin-differentiated ecolabeled canned tuna",

abstract = "The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) sustainable seafood ecolabel covers about 10% of total seafood catch globally. Despite its prevalence, consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for MSC-certified imported seafood is not well understood. Using a choice experiment conducted with an American-consumers sample, this study measures the differences in WTP for American, Ecuadorian, and Vietnamese canned tuna. The results noted two things. First, the ecolabel induces country-specific effects, where the marginal WTP for the MSC label is higher for the imported products than for the domestic product; second, consumers prefer domestic products ceteris paribus, nevertheless, the premium of the ecolabel—when attached to the imported products—may partially eclipse preference for domestic products without the ecolabel. The results imply that the MSC ecolabel may generate a more favorable effect when applied to products from developing countries.",

keywords = "Country of origin, D12, Ecolabel, Interaction effect, Marine Stewardship Council, Q13, Q22, Q56, Sustainable seafood, Willingness to pay",

author = "Lim, {Kar H.} and Wuyang Hu and Nayga, {Rodolfo M.}",

note = "Funding Information: This project is supported by the start-up fund of College of Agriculture at the Tennessee State University , the Tyson Chair Endowment at the University of Arkansas , and Korea University Special Research Funding. We would like to thank the Marine Stewardship Council for allowing the use their official logo in the experiment. In addition, we thank Carola Grebitus and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and contributions to the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018",

year = "2018",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1016/j.marpol.2018.07.015",

language = "English",

volume = "96",

pages = "18--26",

journal = "Marine Policy",

issn = "0308-597X",

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AU - Hu, Wuyang

AU - Nayga, Rodolfo M.

N1 - Funding Information: This project is supported by the start-up fund of College of Agriculture at the Tennessee State University , the Tyson Chair Endowment at the University of Arkansas , and Korea University Special Research Funding. We would like to thank the Marine Stewardship Council for allowing the use their official logo in the experiment. In addition, we thank Carola Grebitus and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and contributions to the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2018

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N2 - The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) sustainable seafood ecolabel covers about 10% of total seafood catch globally. Despite its prevalence, consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for MSC-certified imported seafood is not well understood. Using a choice experiment conducted with an American-consumers sample, this study measures the differences in WTP for American, Ecuadorian, and Vietnamese canned tuna. The results noted two things. First, the ecolabel induces country-specific effects, where the marginal WTP for the MSC label is higher for the imported products than for the domestic product; second, consumers prefer domestic products ceteris paribus, nevertheless, the premium of the ecolabel—when attached to the imported products—may partially eclipse preference for domestic products without the ecolabel. The results imply that the MSC ecolabel may generate a more favorable effect when applied to products from developing countries.

AB - The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) sustainable seafood ecolabel covers about 10% of total seafood catch globally. Despite its prevalence, consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for MSC-certified imported seafood is not well understood. Using a choice experiment conducted with an American-consumers sample, this study measures the differences in WTP for American, Ecuadorian, and Vietnamese canned tuna. The results noted two things. First, the ecolabel induces country-specific effects, where the marginal WTP for the MSC label is higher for the imported products than for the domestic product; second, consumers prefer domestic products ceteris paribus, nevertheless, the premium of the ecolabel—when attached to the imported products—may partially eclipse preference for domestic products without the ecolabel. The results imply that the MSC ecolabel may generate a more favorable effect when applied to products from developing countries.

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KW - Willingness to pay

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Is Marine Stewardship Council's ecolabel a rising tide for all? Consumers’ willingness to pay for origin-differentiated ecolabeled canned tuna

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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