Measuring preferences for genetically modified food products

Routledge Explorations in Environmental Economics Chapitre 20International audienceThis chapter surveys three studies. The first two consider empirical questions related to the willingness to pay for food products with genetically modified content, and the third compares two different techniques to elicit willingness to pay. The results of the first experiment show a sharp contrast to the predominantly negative view of French survey respondents toward genetically modified organisms in food products. In our experiment, we observe a wide range of revealed preferences. Whereas 35 percent of the subjects absolutely refused to purchase a product containing GMOs, the remaining 65 percent of the subjects were willing to purchase a GM product if it was sufficiently inexpensive. Nearly one quarter of participants showed no decrease in their willingness to pay in response to learning that a product contained GMOs