In understanding decreases in demand after exposure to media-induced food scares, aggregate data are almost exclusively presented without taking into consideration potential confounding variables. However, a better approach may be to use an experimental design coupled with targeting homogeneous...

Many commodities have programs assessing producers for generic advertising. Ads such as "Got Milk?" and the "Incredible Edible Egg" are a public good for producers. Most of these programs originally used the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism, but have now become mandatory because of free-riding....

Given the uncertain legal status of generic advertising programs for agricultural commodities, alternative voluntary funding institutions are investigated hat could provide a high level of benefits to producers. This experimental study simulates key economic and psychological factors that affect...

Producers are continually seeking to differentiate their products in the marketplace. A common approach is via labeling where differences in production methods are marketed. Yet, positive labeling for the new product has the potential to stigmatize the conventionally produced product by...

This research examines the effect of three factors—cheap talk, voting, and the status quo of the donation—on the voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM). Using undergraduate business students, results show that contributions as a percent of income in the last of ten rounds range from 18% for...

This paper exploits a unique opportunity to test parallelism between the field and laboratory for the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM). Most commodities in the United States have checkoff programs assessing producers for generic advertising and promotion, a public good for producers....

Given the uncertain legal status of generic advertising programs for agricultural commodities, alternative voluntary funding institutions are investigated hat could provide a high level of benefits to producers. This experimental study simulates key economic and psychological factors that affect...

Consumers indicate on surveys that price and freshness are important to their purchase decisions. If this is true, then why don’t retailers sell milk differentiated by the date it was pasteurized or why are meats not displayed with several different prices based on time since butchering? Our...

The mandatory nature of generic advertising funding remains a contentious issue. Theoretically and in laboratory environments, a provision point mechanism with a money-back guarantee offers an attractive voluntary alternative to the standard voluntary contribution mechanisms, yet in practice,...