Econometric Analysis and Results

Source authors calculations on survey data. Standard errors in brackets. 

A number of points can be made by looking at the values in the table. First, it is clear that the data cannot reject the null hypothesis of unobserved heterogeneity, and in particular its joint form, since the models MXLC and MXLC SE achieve significantly 

Having established that the null hypothesis of joint taste parameter distribution is supported in the data, we eoneentrated on the model without socio-economic variables (MXLC) and used the parameter estimates of the joint distribution of tastes to simulate taste segment shares, and marginal and conditional distributions of WTP for each of the three production related attributes. These are reported in Table 3. 

The largest taste-based market share is about 40% and includes those who enjoy ORG, ICM and QC in potatoes in segment A. In this large segment the mean WTP for ORG is 1.42 LUR/kg. ICM, the soft alternative to ORG, has a mean WTP of 0.80 

In the analysis of the responses, we employed a random utility paradigm implemented via mixed logit and aseertain that the sample displays joint taste intensity distribution for environment friendly produetion methods sueh as organie, integrated erop management and quality eertifieation. The estimated eorrelation strueture was then employed to estimate taste-based market share and mean WTP for eaeh desirable attribute in eaeh share. 

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