Determinants of demande for green products: an application to eco-label demand for fish in europe.
Résumé
In this paper, we confront the theoretical motivations of the consumption of eco-friendly products and the factors influencing the Europeans perceptions regarding the fact that “the fishes caught with an environmental friendly technique may carry a special label”. We take advantage of the recent integration of non-economic elements in the microeconomic analysis of consumers’ behavior in order to highlight the factors leading to their demand for green products. Thanks to an original European survey on seafood product carried out on more than 5 000 consumers, we test the influence of intrinsic motivation, information, localization and socio-economic factors on the demand for an eco-label for fish. Our results show a significant connection between the willingness of eco-labeling and seafood features, especially the fish freshness, the geographical origin of the fish and the wild versus farmed origin of the fish. Moreover, we prove the major role played by the fish price. We also demonstrate that the ecological issue regarding fisheries is well connected with consumer information, intrinsic motivation and socio-economic status: the “green fish consumer” is a young woman, well educated, well informed on the state of marine resource and not very trustful in the well regulation of the fisheries. Moreover, consumers who are aware of the marine resource preservation have the same profile.