Relating Consumer Willingness-to-pay for Food Safety to Risk Tolerance: An Experimental Approach

This study investigates the role of risk tolerance in shaping Canadian consumers' willingness-to-pay for food safety risk reductions. Non-hypothetical experimental auctions were used to elicit consumer valuations of food safety improvement. To identify the relationship between food safety concern and risk-reduction valuations, individual risk-perception scores are constructed based on questionnaire responses. Results show willingness-to-pay for improved food safety tends to decrease as individuals become more risk tolerant. Differences in bids across naive and informed rounds of bidding tend to become smaller with risk tolerance for individuals who initially overestimated the food safety risk.