미국 소비자의 GM농식품 의무적 표시제를 위한 추가지불 의향

Abstract

The conceptual model for analyzing U.S. consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for mandatory labeling policy toward GM foods is Rogers and Shoemaker’s Innovation-Decision model. Innovation-Decision model shows consumer’s cognitive process for willingness to pay a premium for mandatory labeling policy. Consumers’ willingness to pay a premium is affected by various types of information, which have a direct effect on consumers’ GM knowledge and an indirect effect on attitude toward GM foods. An empirical model for the study is Heckman two-step model which consists of both the sample selection equation in the first stage and outcome equation in the second stage. In the first stage a consumer is asked whether he is willing to pay a premium for mandatory labeling. In the second stage he who says yes in the first question is asked the largest percentage premium level he would be willing to pay. That is, consumers’ percentage premium for the mandatory labeling policy is observed only when his willingness to pay is bigger than zero. In Heckman model, probit model is used in the first stage and ordinary least squares is employed in the second stage. Factors that have influence on consumers’ maximum premium level are as follows; i) consumers’ GM knowledge; ii) acceptance of GM foods; iii) trust in government; iv) regions; v) area residing; vi) sex; vii) marital status; viii) age; ix) race; v)education; vi)income. The study conducted a national survey for the analysis. According to the U.S. census bureau in 2003, the sample was stratified by four geographic regions, where were west, midwest, south, northeast, to represent the current U.S. population distribution. The number of questionnaire sent to west is 880, midwest 920, south 1,400, and northeast 800. An overall response rate was 12.3%, and net response rate was about 10%. To decrease a hypothetical bias of contingent valuation method(CVM), the follow-up certainty question was employed. In the follow-up certainty question respondents were asked to rate on a scale how sure they were that they would actually pay. The follow-up question is as follows; “what is the largest percentage premium you would be willing to pay?” A survey showed that 71.1% of respondents preferred a mandatory labeling policy. However, only 57.4% of respondents who had a preference toward mandatory labeling policy were actually willing to pay a premium. The study found that consumers’ acceptance and trust in government had expected signs but insignificant effect on the premium level for mandatory labeling policy. In addition, results suggested that an economic factor, such as income, had significantly influenced the premium level for mandatory labeling policy. It turned out that most of variables were insignificant in premium equation. Results provide implications for the Korean government toward GM food policy. The Korean society is divided into two parts for GM labeling policy. Consumer and environment groups are against the current GM labeling policy, asking the tighter GM labeling policy. On the other hand, food enterprises are for the current GM labeling policy, insisting that GM labeling policy implemented is very appropriate and reasonable for our society and nation, considering GM food safety, costs, and benefits. An important issue is that when food prices increase by strengthening the GM labeling policy, as expected, whether consumers pay more. The study implies that the Korean consumers will also be very sensitive for an economic factor like US consumers. A recent research demonstrated that the Korean consumers with fears about GM foods to some extent had no intention to pay more for foods which prices increased.