Estimating the economic benefits of avoiding food-borne risk: is 'willingness to pay' feasible?
In this paper, the results of a pilot study of willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid poultry-borne illness are reported. Through this, the problems of devising an economic measure of the 'intangible' benefits of prevention of food-borne risk are explored. The study is the first to allow those against a prevention policy (irradiation of poultry-meat) to register their WTP not to have the policy implemented. The study demonstrates that it is feasible to obtain answers to WTP questions from a self-selected sample. Future studies should ensure greater representativeness of respondents, that better information about benefits is provided to respondents and that an appropriate method of aggregation of benefits is used.
Donaldson
C
C
Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Scotland.
Mapp
T
T
Ryan
M
M
Curtin
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005514:Food Irradiation / Q000191:economics*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011200:Poultry / Q000382:microbiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires