Willingness-to-pay for sustainability-labelled chocolate: an experimental auction approach

This study evaluates young consumers' attitudes to sustainable food and analyzes the determinants of their willingness to pay (WTP) for chocolate bars with different sustainability labels. Data were collected through experimental auctions in Italy assessing respondents' (N = 80, aged between 18 and 35) WTP for chocolate bars with three selected labels (i.e. Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and Carbon Footprint). Econometric outcomes reveal that several sodo-demographic factors exert a positive and statistically significant effect on WTP for all the selected chocolate bars, namely age cohort (older), gender (female) and household income (high). Respondents' lifestyles and food consumption habits also had an effect on final bids. This study offers valuable insights to policy makers and practitioners for efficiently targeting young consumers in campaigns to increase sustainability-labelled food consumption. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.