Estimating consumers' Willingness to Pay for Antibiotic-free Chicken Meat in Shiraz

Subject Areas : Agricultural Economics Research

hassan azarm ^{1 *} , mohammad bakhshoodeh ² , Samad Erfanifar ³

1 - Ph.D. Student of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University. Shiraz, Iran
2 - Professor of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Darab College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Received: 2020-01-17 Accepted : 2022-04-19 Published : 2022-04-21

Keywords: Shiraz, Willingness to pay, Tobit model, Antibiotic-free chicken meat, Heckman two-step model,

Abstract :

In this study, consumers’ willingness to pay for antibiotic-free chicken meat in Shiraz was estimated by utilizing contingent valuation method with open-ended questions. Data were collected by completing the questionnaire from 576 citizens in May 2018. Since the data on consumer willingness to pay extra amount for chicken antibiotic-free were negative, the Tobit model was initially estimated, but the basic hypotheses of this model including homoscedasticity and normality of the residual sentences were rejected. A two-step Heckman model was applied to identify the factors affecting the selection and estimation of the extra amount they would be willing to pay for antibiotic-free chicken compared to that for conventional one. Data analysis showed that about 90% of the people are willing to pay 19490 Rial/Kg on average as additional amount to buy antibiotic-free chicken. According to the results of this study, there is a potential market for antibiotic-free chicken meat in Shiraz, and producers can benefit from the supply of chicken meat antibiotic-free.