Driving factors behind consumers' severe response to U.S. beef imports during the candlelight protest in South Korea

The South Korean government's reversal of a ban on American beef imports in 2008 caused enormous political and social upheaval in the country. The government's acquiescence to the United States' request to resume imports of boned beef and beef from cattle slaughtered over the age of 30 months led to overwhelming negative publicity, as mass media described the decision as yielding to U.S. pressure at the expense of public health. Koreans gathered to demonstrate against the agreement; the resulting “candlelight protest” quickly intensified, spreading across the country from May 2008 through August 2008. Given the different opinions regarding the main causes of the event, this study revisits the issue by empirically testing for switches in meat demand for different types of meat among South Korean consumers. The results indicate that there was no structural change in meat demand around the candlelight protest period, which suggests that variations in meat demand during that period can be explained by changes in relative prices between different types of meat. This implies that unlike the findings of previous studies, the negative consumer reaction was not associated with risk‐averse behavior concerning the consumption of U.S. beef. [EconLit citations: C14; E20; Q11]