DSpace Repository :: Browsing by Author "Kecinski, Maik"

Browsing by Author "Kecinski, Maik"

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Back to the Source: Consumer Behavior in Response to Different Sources of Recycled Irrigation Water
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2022-06-12) Messer, Kent D.; Ellis, Sean F.; Kecinski, Maik; Ganguly, Diya
Using recycled water to irrigate agricultural products can be an effective solution to water scarcity. However, a better understanding of how society evaluates different sources of recycled water provides insights into potential demand-side barriers to adoption of these solutions. This paper implements a field economic experiment conducted in the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States that evaluates consumers’ willingness-to-pay for three sources of recycled irrigation water: “gray”, “black”, and “produced”. Our analysis indicates that people consider certain sources of recycled water more acceptable for irrigating produce than others. Recycled gray water is preferred to recycled-produced water, and both are preferred to recycled black water. We also explore how adult consumers respond to scientific information about the benefits and risks of using recycled irrigation water, and find that it does not mitigate consumers’ concerns.
Behavioral Responses to Science-based Eco-labeling: Gold, Silver, or Bronze
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2018-02) Li, Tongzhe; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
This study uses unique data collected from field experiments to investigate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for otherwise homogeneous commodities that provide different levels of environmental services. On average, individuals are willing to pay more for products that provide a higher level of ecosystem services. This effect is larger when the label contains symbols that explicitly differentiate the levels and the magnitude is further amplified when it contains brief information on the scientific basis for the levels. However, our results also suggest that the WTP premium for the superior product is smaller than the discount in WTP for the inferior product. JEL Classifications: D12, Q55, M31, L10
Competition in Stackelberg Oligopolies: First Mover Advantage vs. Inequality Aversion
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, 2015-05) Kecinski, Maik
This paper reports on experimental results from a 2-period sequential Stackelberg game where players have a one time opportunity to invest positive relative pro ts in order to lower marginal cost and gain competitive advantage. Theory predicts one sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium in pure strategies with both Stackelberg leaders and Stackelberg followers playing absolute pro t maximizing strategies and leaders earning much larger pay than followers. Experimental results, however, show that Cournot play is modal. Stackelberg leaders learn to play fair through punishment. Investment to lower marginal cost was more frequent among Stackelberg followers, who used relative pro t maximizing strategies to punish rather than to gain competitive advantage.
Conservation Professional Attitudes about Cost Effectiveness of the Land Preservation: A Case Study in Maryland
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2014-03) Messer, Kent D.; Allen, William; Kecinski, Maik; Chen, Yu
A consensus exists amongst academics that cost-effective land preservation should involve benefits and costs. In reality, the vast majority of conservation programs are not cost-effective, i.e. lower conservation benefits are achieved for the limited funding. Little research has been conducted about the attitudes of conservation professionals about the importance of being cost-effective and little is known about how conservation professionals believe that they can become more cost-effective. This study reports on a survey conducted with conservation professionals associated with the State of Maryland’s agricultural protection program, a leading program in the United States. Results suggest that while conservation professionals are generally in favor cost-effective conservation, it is not a top goal for them. Processes such as transparency and fairness are rated more important. This research shows how the willingness of administrators to adopt mathematical programming techniques is significantly influenced by knowledge of optimization technique, administrative requirements, cost concerns, percentage of agricultural land previously preserved in the county, how rural the county is, and lack of incentive for administrators to adopt cost-effectiveness techniques. This finding is important to understand the lack of adoption of cost-effective techniques. Results also suggest that adoption may be enhanced with the availability of software and training.
Consumer Perceptions After Long Term Use or Alternative Irrigation Water: An Israeli Field Experiment
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2020-03) Ellis, S.F.; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.; Lipchin, Clive
This study provides the first revealed preference estimates of Israeli’s willingness-to-pay for produce irrigated with alternative water. It also investigates how exposure to information about the benefits and risks of recycled water affects these preferences. Results show that Israeli’s prefer produce irrigated with conventional water over any type of alternative water, and that preferences for alternative water varies by type. Exposure to information about the risks of recycled water increases consumers’ willingness-to-pay for produce irrigated with desalinated water. These results indicate there may be limits to how high consumer demand for alternative water can rise even after long term implementation.
Consumer Preferences for the Provision of Water Quality Services by Oysters
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2016-03) Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.; Peo, Audrey J.
In the United States and many other countries around the world, estuary eutrophication is a major environmental problem that can result in harmful algal blooms with detrimental impacts on eco-systems and humans, while imposing substantial costs. Oysters are suspension feeders, filtering phytoplankton from water anad thereby reducing organic matter, the primary driver of eutrophication. The U.D. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supports using shellfish aquaculture as a nutrient management practice. Our revealed preference dichotomous choice experiments test if participants are willing to pay price premiums for oysters that provide eco-system services. Results suggest that if oysters are from waters containing an unknown amount of nutrients, providing participants with information does not have an effect. However, providing partcipants with information about eutrophication and oysters’ ability to filter nutrients from water makes them more likely to choose oysters from low nutrient waters. Oysters from moderate and high nutrient waters, which provide larger eco-system services, are significantly more likely to be selected if participants receive no information.
Consumer Preferences for the Provision of Water Quality Services by Oysters
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2017-06) Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.; Peo, Audrey J.
In the United States and many other countries around the world, estuary eutrophication is a major environmental problem than can results in harmful algal blooms with detrimental impacts on eco-systems and humans, while imposing substantial costs. Oysters are suspension feeders, filtering phytoplankton from water and thereby reducing organic matter, the primary driver of eutrophication. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supports using shellfish aquaculture as a nutrient management practice. Our revealed preference dichotomous choice experiments test if participants are willing to price premiums for oysters that provide eco-system services. Results suggest that if oysters are from waters containing an unknown amount of nutrient, providing participants with information does not have an effect. However, providing participants with information about eutrophication and oysters ability to filter nutrients from water makes them more likely to choose oysters from low nutrient waters. Oysters from moderate and high nutrient waters, which provide larger eco-system services, are significantly more likely to be selected if participants receive no information.
Does Food Processing Mitigate Consumers’ Concerns about Crops Grown with Recycled Water?
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2018-09) Savchenko, Olesya M.; Li, Tongzhe; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
This paper presents results of a field experiment designed to evaluate whether food processing alleviates consumers’ concerns about crops grown with recycled water. Recycled water has emerged as a safe and cost-effective way to increase supplies of irrigation water. However, adoption of recycled water by U.S. agricultural producers has been modest, in part, because of concerns that consumers will be reluctant to accept recycled water for uses that involve ingestion or personal contact. Therefore, both policymakers and food producers must understand how consumers’ aversion to recycled water can be mitigated, especially when the products are safe. To date, most of the existing literature has focused on fresh food, yet our results suggest that, for food, simple processing such as drying or liquefying can relieve some of consumers’ concern about use of recycled irrigation water. We find that consumers of processed foods are indifferent between irrigation with recycled and conventional water, however, they are less willing to pay for fresh foods irrigated with recycled water relative to conventional water. We also find that the demographic and behavioral characteristics tested in the experiment mostly had no statistically significant effect. The one exception is age—older consumers are less likely than younger ones to purchase processed foods irrigated with recycled water. Our analysis further reveals that informational nudges that provide consumers with messages about benefits, risks, and both the benefits and risks of using recycled water have no statistically significant effect on consumers’ willingness to pay for fresh and processed foods irrigated with recycled water relative to a no-information control group.
Fresh Foods Irrigated With Recycled Water: A Framed Field Experiment on Consumer Response
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2018-01) Xu, Huidong; Savchenko, Olesya; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.; Li, Tongzhe
Recycled water is one potential solution to meeting the growing demand for irrigation water in the U.S. and worldwide. However, widespread adoption of recycled water by agriculture will depend on consumers’ acceptance of food crops grown with this water. In a revealed-preference dichotomous-choice framed field experiment, this study elicits consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh produce irrigated with recycled water. It also evaluates consumers’ behavioral responses to information about the environmental benefits and potential health risks of recycled irrigation water. The results suggest that consumers are less willing to pay for produce irrigated with recycled water than for produce irrigated with water of an unspecified type. Information about potential health risks associated with recycled water reduces consumers’ WTP by nearly 50% while information about its environmental benefits does not have a substantial impact. However, a behavioral intervention that presents individuals with a balanced information treatment leads to a 30% increase in mean WTP for produce irrigated with recycled water relative to the experimental control. However, this effect is only found with vegetables and not with fruit, perhaps because fruit is usually consumed raw. Most of the demographic characteristics analyzed in the experiment did not influence consumers’ likelihood of purchasing produce irrigated with recycled water; the exception was presence of a child in the household—those consumers were less likely to purchase the produce, particularly fruits, irrigated with recycled water.
Heterogeneous Preferences and Demographic Differences for Oysters: Evidence from Field Experiments
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2016-10-25) Li, Tongzhe; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
This study uses field experiments to highlight attributes and heterogeneous characteristics of oyster consumers to draw conclusions about overall oyster preferences. In the study, 486 adult participants complete a series of revealed-preference dichotomous-choice tasks and a demographic survey. Using a random effects logit model, we investigate factors that influence participants’ decisions to purchase oysters. As expected, price has a significant negative effect while income has a positive effect. Consumers are more likely to purchase oysters when they know the nutrient level of the water in which the oysters were produced. Older individuals and those who are relatively selective regarding shell color or smell are relatively less likely to buy oysters, but consumers who value size, oyster species, and harvest location are willing to pay more. We also estimate the marginal effects of the variables on consumer willingness to pay.
Measuring Stigma: The Behavioral Implications of Disgust
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2015-05) Kecinski, Maik; Keisner, Deborah Kerley; Messer, Kent D.; Schulze, William D.
Our experiments provide insight into the behavioral responses of disgust from an economic perspective. Stigmatization of products and technologies can lead to large monetary losses even when there are no associative risks. We use a dead sterilized cockroach to ‘contaminate’ drinking water and generate willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-accept measures of participants’ reactions. Contrary to previous results, not involving economic incentives, we find that (1) most participants’ values remain unchanged for cockroach water, (2) of those that do display a strong reaction, this stigma response is not always permanent, (3) stigma can be mitigated through treatment such as water filtration. (JEL C91, D81)
Military Readiness and Environmental Protection Through Cost.effective Land Conservation
(2015-05) Kecinski, Maik; Keisner, Deborah Kerley; Messer, Kent D.; Schulze, William D.
Harboring a high density of threatened and endangered species on its bases leaves the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) with a critical responsibility establishing sound environmental policies while also continuing training and ensuring military readiness. This dual objective is the goal of the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, a large conservation fund for military installations that is mandated to be cost-effective. Analyzing a unique DoD data set, we show that use of optimization models generate a 21% increase in military readiness and environmental protection or achieve the same benefits as benefit targeting at a cost saving of 37%.
Multiple-Knapsack Optimization in Land Conservation: Results from the first cost-effective conservation program in the US
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2014-07) Messer, Kent D.; Kecinski, Maik; Tang, Xing; Hirsch, Robert
The literature on optimizing conservation selection traditionally assumes that the conservation agency makes selections based on a single funding source. However, the reality is that conservation groups often piece together their selections by combining funds from multiple sources. This paper shows that, when conservation programs apply multiple-knapsack optimization (also referred to as simultaneous binary integer programming), substantial increases in social benefits, acreage, and number of parcels preserved can be achieved. In particular, we show that applying a simultaneous optimization model can generate substantially greater benefits than three other approaches: benefit targeting, cost-effectiveness analysis, and sequential optimization. By applying these four methods to data collected from 118 land easement applications in Baltimore County, Maryland, for 2007 through 2009, we show that simultaneous binary integer programming provides greater conservation benefits and preserves more acres of land. This study is the first to use data collected from an ongoing conservation program to quantify the increase in benefits of using a simultaneous optimization approach to achieve truly cost-effective conservation.
A Neuroeconomic Investigation of Disgust in Food Purchasing Decisions
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2019-12) Ellis, Sean F.; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.; Lusk, Jayson L.
Dealing with large-scale societal problems such as water scarcity often requires changes in behavior that consumers resist. Some sustainable, cost-effective, and safe solutions are even rejected because of a psychological response of disgust, such as food produced with recycled water to supplement traditional water supplies and crickets as a replacement for water-intensive proteins like beef. This study, involving 51 adult participants, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore consumers neural responses to these types of food and the role price plays in their decisions. A video that promotes the use of recycled water was also tested to determine whether consumers’ aversion can be ameliorated. The results show activation in the insular cortex when presented with images of food produced with recycled water or crickets, indicating these foods are associated with feelings of disgust. After the treatment video, neural activity did not change in the insular cortex, however, respondent’s decisions about food produced with recycled water did. Together, these findings suggest disgust is a part of the decision process, that it lingers and can be difficult to mitigate, but that behavioral interventions have the potential to overcome it.
Nudge or Sludge? An In-Class Experimental Auction Illustrating How Misunderstood Scientific Information Can Change Consumer Behavior
(Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 2022-03-16) Paul, Laura A.; Savchenko, Olesya M.; Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
Scientific information can be used to help people understand and describe the world. For example, consumers regularly seek out information about their food and drink to help inform their purchasing decisions. Sometimes, however, consumers can respond negatively to this information, even when the information did not intend to convey a negative signal. These negative responses can be the result of misunderstandings or strong, visceral, emotional behavior, that can be challenging to foresee and once arisen, difficult (and expensive) to mitigate. In this paper, we show how educators can use an in-class economic experiment to introduce the power of a sludge—a small behavioral intervention that leads to worse outcomes. We provide a step-by-step guide to take students through a demand revealing design using a second-price, willingness-to-accept (WTA) auction that tests preferences for tap water and bottled water when students receive total dissolved solids (TDS) information. Additional classroom discussion topics are presented, including comparing nudges and sludges, the public response to the treatment of tap water, and the role of safety information in consumer response.
Reclaimed Water and Food Production: Cautionary Tales from Consumer Research
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2018-09) Savchenko, Olesya M.; Kecinski, Maik; Li, Tongzhe; Messer, Kent D.
Reclaimed water has been identified as a viable and cost-effective solution to water shortages impacting agricultural production. However, lack of consumer acceptance for foods irrigated with reclaimed water remains one of the greatest hurdles for widespread farm-level adoption. Using survey data from 540 adults in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., this paper examines consumer preferences for six sources of reclaimed irrigation water and identifies statistically significant relationships between consumers’ demographic characteristics and their preferences for each type of reclaimed water. Key findings suggest that consumers prefer rain water to all other sources of reclaimed water. Women are less likely than men to prefer reclaimed irrigation water sources and are particularly concerned about the use of black and brackish water. Consumers who had heard about reclaimed water before are more likely to accept its use. Drawing on evidence from survey and experimental research, this paper also identifies disgust, neophobia and health concerns as the key issues that lead consumers to accept or reject foods produced with reclaimed water. Finally, we identify avenues for future research into public acceptance of reclaimed water based on our analysis and evidence from prior research.
Social Preferences and Communication as Stigma Mitigation Devices – Evidence from Recycled Drinking Water Experiments
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2016-03) Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
Differences between private and public decision-making are quantified using willingness-to-accept (WTA) data collected in artefactual field experiments. Participants first makedecisions in a second-price auction (private rounds) followed by majority-rule voting (public rounds) on the median price collected in the private rounds. Results suggest that other-regarding behavior in the public rounds regarding stigma and disgust can significantly reduce WTA. Chatbox communication can further reduce WTA, and social preferences, education, and unrelated communication are the primary drivers that lead participants to accept significantly lower prices for potentially disgusting tasks. The results have application for sustainable, cost-effective recycled water projects.
Social Preferences and Communication as Stigma Mitigation Devices- Evidence from Recycled Drinking Water Experiments
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2017-06) Kecinski, Maik; Messer, Kent D.
Differences between private and public decision-making are quantified using willingness-to-accept (WTA) data collected in artefactual field experiments. Participants first make decisions in a second-price auction (private rounds) followed by majority-rule voting (public rounds) on the median price collected in the private rounds. Results suggest that other-regarding behavior in the public rounds regarding stigma and disgust can significantly reduce WTA. Chat-box communication can further reduce WTA, and social preferences, education, and unrelated communication are the primary drivers that lead participants to accept significantly lower prices for potentially disgusting tasks. The results have application for sustainable, cost-effective recycled water projects.
Stigma Mitigation and the Importance of Redundant Treatments
(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2015-05) Kecinski, Maik; Keisner, Deborah Kerley; Messer, Kent D.; Schulze, William D.
Disgust can evoke strong behavioral responses. Sometimes these extreme visceral responses can lead to stigmatization—an overreaction to a risk. In fact, disgust may be so inhibiting that it leads people to refuse to consume completely safe items such as treated drinking water, leading to important economic and policy implications. Using economic experiments, we provide a measure of the behavioral response to disgust. Our findings suggest that when monetary incentives are provided, the behavioral response may have been exaggerated by previous studies that have relied on survey methods. Furthermore, mitigation steps successfully reduce the stigma behavior. In fact, the results suggest that stigma is primarily reduced not by a specific mitigation step taken but by how many steps are taken consecutively. These results have important implications for policies addressing issues such as the global shortage of drinking water. Some efforts to resolve the shortage have involved recycled water that is completely safe to drink but is often rejected because of reactions of disgust.

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