Purpose

The objective of this study is to assess if Italian fish consumers are sensible to shark protection and if they would contribute paying more for small pelagic fishes coming from fisheries that are certified as “shark-free”.

Design/methodology/approach

Contingent valuation is used to estimate willingness to pay with a double approach, including a dichotomous choice and an open-ended question. Inconsistency between the two answers is allowed. This allows the correction of two sources of bias (i.e. preference uncertainty and anchoring effect) and has permitted that the two estimation methods converged to the same result.

Findings

Consumers show interest for the “shark-free” label. Premium price is estimated at +26%. Variables affecting willingness to pay (WTP) in the sample are age, income, environmental attitude, knowledge of organic labels and frequency of small pelagics' consumption. Results need to be confirmed by a replication on a larger (probabilistic) sample and with a different distribution of bids.

Originality/value

Ecosystems provide different benefits to humankind, including non-use services, such as the satisfaction to know that a species is well conserved. Generally, appreciation is higher for what are considered charismatic species. In this paper, the authors investigate if sharks can be considered charismatic species despite their “bad reputation”. The interest in shark survival is measured indirectly using a “shark-free” label on a commercial species like anchovy, allowing to increase the value added of this low-price species.

中文翻译：

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消费者对小型中上层鲨鱼的无鲨鱼生态标签的赞赏

目的

这项研究的目的是评估意大利鱼类消费者是否对鲨鱼保护敏感，以及他们是否愿意为来自经认证为“无鲨鱼”的渔业的小型中上层鱼类支付更多费用。

设计/方法/方法

或有估值法用于通过双重方法（包括二分式选择和开放式问题）来估计支付意愿。允许两个答案不一致。这允许校正两个偏差源（即偏好不确定性和锚定效应），并允许这两种估计方法收敛到相同的结果。

发现

消费者对“无鲨鱼”标签表现出兴趣。溢价估计为+ 26％。影响样本支付意愿的变量包括年龄，收入，环境态度，有机标签知识和小中上层鱼类消费频率。需要通过在较大（概率）样本上进行重复并采用不同的出价分配来确认结果。

创意/价值

生态系统为人类带来不同的利益，包括不使用服务，例如知道物种得到良好保护的满足感。通常，对具有超凡魅力的物种的鉴赏力更高。在本文中，作者调查了鲨鱼是否具有“坏名声”，是否可以将其视为具有超凡魅力的物种。对鲨鱼生存的兴趣是通过在诸如species鱼这样的商业物种上使用“无鲨鱼”标签间接测量的，从而增加了这种低价物种的附加值。