Would consumers value food-away-from-home products with nutritional labels?

The authors examine consumers? valuation for food-away-from-home products with and without nutritional labels using experimental auctions. They presented subjects with three different nutritional information schemes: a European Union type label, a United States type label, and a traffic-light colored information label. Furthermore, they examined the role of reference prices (i.e., the real market prices of the products) within the context of experimental auctions. Using well-known products, our results indicate that subjects bid more for the products with nutritional labels. However, among products with nutritional information, subjects? willingness to pay values differ depending on the type of nutritional label on the product. In addition, the authors find evidence that inclusion of reference prices leads to higher bids. [JEL classifications: D12, C23].