You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya
The lack of a reliably safe food supply in developing countries imposes both health and economic costs. Food safety is one of several dimensions of food quality that are typically unobservable at the time of purchase. Branding can overcome this information problem by allowing firms to build reputati...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Wiley
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148654 |
| _version_ | 1855527535718170624 |
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| author | Hoffmann, Vivian Moser, Christine |
| author_browse | Hoffmann, Vivian Moser, Christine |
| author_facet | Hoffmann, Vivian Moser, Christine |
| author_sort | Hoffmann, Vivian |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | The lack of a reliably safe food supply in developing countries imposes both health and economic costs. Food safety is one of several dimensions of food quality that are typically unobservable at the time of purchase. Branding can overcome this information problem by allowing firms to build reputations based on the quality of their products. If a reputation for food safety is valued directly by consumers, or if food safety is correlated with other valued attributes, firms producing safer food should be able to use their brand equity to charge higher prices. In addition, firms with stronger brand equity have stronger incentives to meet food safety standards in order to maintain that equity. Using data from more than 900 maize flour samples representing 23 distinct brands in eastern and central Kenya, we explore the relationship between price and contamination with aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a fungal toxin common in maize, groundnuts, and other crops around the world. We find a strong negative correlation between price and contamination at the brand level, consistent with the hypothesized positive relationship between brand equity and food quality. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace148654 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| publisherStr | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1486542024-10-25T07:58:24Z You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya Hoffmann, Vivian Moser, Christine food contamination food policies maize food safety aflatoxins food prices The lack of a reliably safe food supply in developing countries imposes both health and economic costs. Food safety is one of several dimensions of food quality that are typically unobservable at the time of purchase. Branding can overcome this information problem by allowing firms to build reputations based on the quality of their products. If a reputation for food safety is valued directly by consumers, or if food safety is correlated with other valued attributes, firms producing safer food should be able to use their brand equity to charge higher prices. In addition, firms with stronger brand equity have stronger incentives to meet food safety standards in order to maintain that equity. Using data from more than 900 maize flour samples representing 23 distinct brands in eastern and central Kenya, we explore the relationship between price and contamination with aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a fungal toxin common in maize, groundnuts, and other crops around the world. We find a strong negative correlation between price and contamination at the brand level, consistent with the hypothesized positive relationship between brand equity and food quality. 2017 2024-06-21T09:25:20Z 2024-06-21T09:25:20Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148654 en Wiley Hoffmann, Vivian; and Moser, Christine. 2017. You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya. Agricultural Economics 48(4): 449-458. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12346 |
| spellingShingle | food contamination food policies maize food safety aflatoxins food prices Hoffmann, Vivian Moser, Christine You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title | You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title_full | You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title_fullStr | You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title_full_unstemmed | You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title_short | You get what you pay for: the link between price and food safety in Kenya |
| title_sort | you get what you pay for the link between price and food safety in kenya |
| topic | food contamination food policies maize food safety aflatoxins food prices |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148654 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hoffmannvivian yougetwhatyoupayforthelinkbetweenpriceandfoodsafetyinkenya AT moserchristine yougetwhatyoupayforthelinkbetweenpriceandfoodsafetyinkenya |