IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uersrr/56477.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers' Retail Purchases

Author

Listed:
  • Beach, Robert H.
  • Kuchler, Fred
  • Leibtag, Ephraim S.
  • Zhen, Chen

Abstract

To better understand how information about potential health hazards influences food demand, this case study examines consumers’ responses to newspaper articles on avian influenza, informally referred to as bird flu. The focus here is on the response to bird flu information in Italy as news about highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) unfolded in the period October 2004 through October 2006, beginning after reports of the first outbreaks in Southeast Asia and extending beyond the point at which outbreaks were reported in Western Europe. Estimated poultry demand, as influenced by the volume of newspaper reports on bird flu, reveals the magnitude and duration of newspaper articles’ impacts on consumers’ food choices. Larger numbers of bird flu news reports led to larger reductions in poultry purchases. Most impacts were of limited duration, and all began to diminish within 5 weeks.

Suggested Citation

  • Beach, Robert H. & Kuchler, Fred & Leibtag, Ephraim S. & Zhen, Chen, 2008. "The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers' Retail Purchases," Economic Research Report 56477, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersrr:56477
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.56477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/56477/files/Avian%20Influnza_Kuchler_err-65.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.56477?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kuchler, Fred & Tegene, Abebayehu, 2006. "Did Bse Announcements Reduce Beef Purchases?," Economic Research Report 7251, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Igal Hendel & Aviv Nevo, 2006. "Sales and consumer inventory," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 543-561, September.
    3. Golan, Elise H. & Krissoff, Barry & Kuchler, Fred & Calvin, Linda & Nelson, Kenneth E. & Price, Gregory K., 2004. "Traceability In The U.S. Food Supply: Economic Theory And Industry Studies," Agricultural Economic Reports 33939, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Dono, Gabriele & Thompson, Gary, 1994. "Explaining Changes in Italian Consumption of Meat: Parametric and Non-parametric Analysis," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 21(2), pages 175-198.
    5. Mitchell, Douglas W. & Speaker, Paul J., 1986. "A simple, flexible distributed lag technique : The polynomial inverse lag," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 329-340, April.
    6. Nicholas E. Piggott & Thomas L. Marsh, 2004. "Does Food Safety Information Impact U.S. Meat Demand?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(1), pages 154-174.
    7. Mark E. Smith & Eileen O. van Ravenswaay & Stanley R. Thompson, 1988. "Sales Loss Determination in Food Contamination Incidents: An Application to Milk Bans in Hawaii," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(3), pages 513-520.
    8. Frazao, Elizabeth & Meade, Birgit Gisela Saager & Regmi, Anita, 2008. "Converging Patterns in Global Food Consumption and Food Delivery Systems," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, pages 1-8, February.
    9. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2005. "Household Electricity Demand, Revisited," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 853-883.
    10. Igal Hendel & Aviv Nevo, 2006. "Sales and Consumer Inventory," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 543-561, Autumn.
    11. L. Fanelli & M. Mazzocchi, 2002. "A cointegrated VECM demand system for meat in Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(13), pages 1593-1605.
    12. Michael K. Wohlgenant & William F. Hahn, 1982. "Dynamic Adjustment in Monthly Consumer Demands for Meats," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(3), pages 553-557.
    13. Thomas Marsh & Ted Schroeder & James Mintert, 2004. "Impacts of meat product recalls on consumer demand in the USA," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 897-909.
    14. Blayney, Donald P. & Dyck, John H. & Harvey, David J., 2006. "Economic Effects of Animal Diseases linked to Trade Dependency," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, pages 1-7, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beach, Robert H. & Zhen, Chen, 2008. "Consumer Purchasing Behavior in Response to Media Coverage of Avian Influenza," 2008 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2008, Dallas, Texas 6750, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    2. Carlos Arnade & Linda Calvin & Fred Kuchler, 2009. "Consumer Response to a Food Safety Shock: The 2006 Food-Borne Illness Outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 Linked to Spinach," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(4), pages 734-750, December.
    3. Hsu, Jane Lu & Liu, Kang Ernest & Lee, Hwang-Jaw & Huang, Min-Hsin & Hung, Kelsey Jing-Ru, 2010. "The Influences Of Avian Influenza, Bse, And H1n1 Influenza On Attitudinal Changes In Meat Safety Issues," 115th Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, September 15-17, 2010, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany 116405, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Qianfeng Luo & Pengfei Liu & Zhi Li, 2023. "The influence of African swine fever information on consumers’ preference of pork attributes and pork purchase," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 71(1), pages 49-68, March.
    5. Uberta Ganucci Cancellieri & Giulia Amicone & Lavinia Cicero & Alessandro Milani & Oriana Mosca & Marialetizia Palomba & Simonetta Mattiucci & Marino Bonaiuto, 2023. "Can Food Safety Practices and Knowledge of Raw Fish Promote Perception of Infection Risk and Safe Consumption Behavior Intentions Related to the Zoonotic Parasite Anisakis ?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Hassouneh, Islam & Radwan, Amr & Serra, Teresa & Gil, José M., 2012. "Food scare crises and developing countries: The impact of avian influenza on vertical price transmission in the Egyptian poultry sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 264-274.
    7. H. Holly Wang & Paul Gardner de Beville, 2017. "The media impact of animal disease on the US meat demand," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 493-504, September.
    8. Anikó Bíró & Ágnes Szabó-Morvai, 2021. "Mass media coverage and vaccination uptake: evidence from the demand for meningococcal vaccinations in Hungary," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(6), pages 887-903, August.
    9. Guerrero Santiago, 2012. "Who is Selling You Chiquilitros of Gasoline? Evidence From a Public Disclosure Policy," Working Papers 2012-04, Banco de México.
    10. Mitchell, James L. & Thompson, Jada M. & Malone, Trey, 2024. "Biological lags and market dynamics in vertically coordinated food supply chains: HPAI impacts on U.S. egg prices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beach, Robert H. & Zhen, Chen, 2008. "Consumer Purchasing Behavior in Response to Media Coverage of Avian Influenza," 2008 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2008, Dallas, Texas 6750, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    2. Chen Zhen & Justin L. Taylor & Mary K. Muth & Ephraim Leibtag, 2009. "Understanding Differences in Self-Reported Expenditures between Household Scanner Data and Diary Survey Data: A Comparison of Homescan and Consumer Expenditure Survey," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 470-492.
    3. Chantal Toledo & Sofia Berto Villas-Boas, 2019. "Safe or Not? Consumer Responses to Recalls with Traceability," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 519-541, September.
    4. Yadavalli, Anita & Jones, Keithly, 2014. "Does media influence consumer demand? The case of lean finely textured beef in the United States," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 219-227.
    5. Taylor, Mykel & Klaiber, H. Allen & Kuchler, Fred, 2016. "Changes in U.S. consumer response to food safety recalls in the shadow of a BSE scare," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 56-64.
    6. Mario Mazzocchi & Davide Delle Monache & Alexandra Lobb, 2006. "A structural time series approach to modelling multiple and resurgent meat scares in Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(14), pages 1677-1688.
    7. Pavanini, Nicola & Feger, Fabian & Radulescu, Doina, 2017. "Welfare and Redistribution in Residential Electricity Markets with Solar Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 12517, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Aye Chan Myae & Ellen Goddard, 2020. "Household behavior with respect to meat consumption in the presence of BSE and CWD," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 68(3), pages 315-341, September.
    9. Mazzocchi, Mario & Lobb, Alexandra E., 2005. "A Latent-Variable Approach to Modelling Multiple and Resurgent Meat Scares in Italy," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24509, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Zhen, Chen & Wohlgenant, Michael K., 2006. "Food Safety and Habits in U.S. Meat Demand under Rational Expectations," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21287, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Bakhtavoryan, Rafael & Capps, Oral, Jr. & Salin, Victoria, 2014. "Dynamics of Consumer Response to Food Contamination: The 2007 Peanut Butter Recall," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 45(2), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Tselepidakis, Elina, 2015. "Food Safety and the Demand for Leafy Greens," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205583, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Bryan K. Bollinger & Wesley R. Hartmann, 2020. "Information vs. Automation and Implications for Dynamic Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 290-314, January.
    14. Tselepidakis, Elina, 2012. "Food Safety And The Demand For Meat Products," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124968, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Adam Dvir, 2022. "Is mass media an effective channel for conveying nutritional information? Welfare implications of the WHO classification of processed meats as carcinogenic on consumers in Israel," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2022 21, Stata Users Group.
    16. Do,Quy-Toan & Jacoby,Hanan G., 2020. "Sophisticated Policy with Naive Agents : Habit Formation and Piped Water in Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9207, The World Bank.
    17. Beatty, Timothy & Katare, Bhagyashree, 2016. "What Drives Media Reporting of Food Safety Events? Evidence From U.S. Meat Recalls," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 239243, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Heiman, Amir & Lowengart, Oded, 2008. "The effect of information about health hazards on demand for frequently purchased commodities," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 310-318.
    19. Colantuoni, Francesca & Rojas, Christian, 2013. "Heterogeneous behavior, obesity and storability in soft drink consumption: A dynamic demand model," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 257244, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Hinnosaar, Marit, 2016. "Time inconsistency and alcohol sales restrictions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 108-131.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uersrr:56477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.