Willingness to pay for genetically modified food and non-food products

This paper presents estimates of consumers' willingness to pay for a GM food and non-food product based on data collected in a choice experiment. The choice experiment was part of a survey of 1510 randomly selected consumers in Germany that was mailed in spring 2005. Attitudes towards gene technology, institutions and technical progress were measured using 22 items. A factor analysis revealed five factors describing consumer attitudes: support, risk, trust, attitude towards technical progress and attitude towards technical innovation. Based on these factors we identify four different classes of consumers in a latent class model for both products. Analysis of these classes shows strong differences between willingness to pay estimates for benefits compared to risk reduction as well as differences between the classes