Understanding the Determinants of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Eco-Labeled Products: An Empirical Analysis of the China Environmental Label

Junyi Shen

Faculty of International Studies, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/jssm.2012.51011                

Abstract

This study applies data from a web-based survey conducted in mainland China to examine the determinants of consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for seven different product categories awarded with China Environmental Label and com- pare the mean WTP estimates among these categories. The Interval Regression method is used for estimation. The results indicate that Chinese consumers who regard environmental conservation as being more important than life convenience, who believe purchasing the eco-labeled products is good for the environment, and who have the experience in purchasing eco-labeled products are willing to pay more for those products with environmental label or eco-label. In addition, socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education and household income are found to be important factors to affect Chinese consumers’ WTP amounts. Finally, the results of pair-wise comparison among the mean WTP estimates of various eco-labeled products indicate that most of them are different, which implies that the degrees of Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay extra money for China Environmental Label are different based on the types of products.

Keywords

China Environmental Label; Eco-Labeled Products; Interval Regression; Payment Card;Willingness to Pay

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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