对中国消费者非转基因菜油支付意愿的研究

有关中国消费者关于转基因食品接受度的资料非常有限.本文则首次尝试对中国消费者关于非转基因(non-GM)食用油的支付意愿(WTP)问题进行评估.通过对北京的671个消费者进行调查采访,运用假设评价方法(contingent valuation),可推导出消费者对非转基因菜油的支付意愿.为避免调查者无响应引起的偏差,运用了双变量概率选择模式对调查数据进行分析.研究结果表明,消费者对非转基因菜油的支付意愿受到了许多因素的影响,比如价格、风险意识、受教育程度和知识水平等等.计算所得的WTP显示,平均而言,被调查者愿意支付33%的额外费用来消费非转基因菜油.这一结果表明,中国消费者对转基因油持有相当怀疑的态度.

Willingness to Pay for Non-Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil in China

China's new restrictive regulations on GM crops and foods are expected to affect the world oilseed market in some significant way. A good understanding of consumer acceptance of vegetable oil made from genetic modified (GM) oilseed in China is essential to understand how prosperous the Chinese market for GM oilseeds and oils will be in the future. It will also likely to affect the future direction of the private and public investments in the development and use of GM technology in the sector. The objective of this paper is to analyse factors that influence consumer acceptance of GM vegetable oil and to estimate the Chinese consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for non-GM vegetable oil. A sample of 671 consumers was interviewed in Beijing and a dichotomous choice format contingent valuation method is applied to elicit the consumer WTP for non-GM oil. The survey data were analyzed using a bivariate probit selectivity model in order to account for non-response bias and sample selectivity. The computed WTP indicates, on average, that the survey respondents are willing to pay a 33% premium in order to consume non-GM oil. This indicates a considerable skepticism in the Chinese population toward GM oil. The results also indicate that the consumer acceptance toward GM oil is affected by many socio-economic and demographic factors. It is interesting to observe that males are willing to pay slightly higher premium for non-GM oil than female respondents. The respondents less than 35 years old are the least willing to pay more premiums for non-GM oil. Young respondents' WTP is less than half what old respondents are willing to pay for non-GM oil. The respondents with university education or higher tend to pay much higher premium for non-GM oil than those who are less educated. The respondents with high school or less education are not willing to pay much premium for non-GM oil at all. Young respondents' WTP is less than half what old respondents are willing to pay for non-GM oil. This finding suggests that university-educated people are more concerned with food safety issues. Typically, their income sources are higher and more stable as compared to less educated groups, and therefore are willing to pay a higher premium for non-GM oil. In addition, the respondents who are married are willing to pay higher premium for non-GM oil than these who are single.