Measuring Motivations for Choosing Eco-labeled Seafood: Environmental Concerns and Warm Glow

Abstract

Ecolabels are supposed to reduce the information asymmetry between producers and consumers, but they may also produce a warm glow of “green” behavior. We design discrete choice experiments to measure the relative importance of these motivations for choosing ecolabeled seafood products. We find that choice probability increases if the product carries an ecolabel, but the magnitude of this effect depends on which further information is provided about the sustainability of the product. Overall, we attribute 63% of the ecolabel’s original effect on choice probability to consumer demand for sustainable products, and further 24% to warm glow.