Analyse du comportement face à un risque sanitaire cas de la consommation non-marchande de coquillages

This paper explores how people involved in recreational fishing mitigate shellfishrelated health risks. Since self-protection activities are possible to reduce the probability of illness, they provide the basis for empirical estimation of the value of risk change. The probability of illness depends on the environmental quality of the spot where shellfish are gathered, therefore self-protection consists in leaving a polluted site and spending extra time and money to fish a safer zone. Given the lack of relevant data, the contingent valuation method has been used to estimate the option price for reducing the probability of an adverse pollution of people?s usual site. Instead of being asked directly to place a monetary value on the provision of a hypothetical site, respondents were asked how far they would drive to use such a site. A 501-sample was surveyed onsite, and willingness to pay has been derived from the hypothetical travel cost. The economic model integrates the attitude-behaviour relationship developed by Fishbein and Ajzen and emphasises the psychological factors which underlie individual?s beliefs. Much attention is focused on the characterisation of risk perception through the use of psychometric scaling. Socio-economic and psychological factors interact with recreational experience to influence individual responses to a food safety risk significantly. Variables such as income, age, education, distance travelled and the annual number of visits are found to significantly influence willingness to pay. In addition subject?s impression of the authenticity of information, perceived severity of illness and personal experiencewithashellfishpoisoningarestrongpredictorsofindividuals?willingnessto pay. Finally it is found that mean willingness to pay ranges from 16% to 20% of the consumer?s surplus derived from recreational shellfish gathering.