IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nev/wpaper/wp200402.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Focus on Babies: Evidence on Parental Attitudes Towards Pesticide Risks

Author

Listed:
  • Kelly B. Maguire
  • Nicole Owens
  • Nathalie B. Simon

Abstract

Studies that estimate the benefits of reduced environmental exposure typically assume that individuals know the true magnitude of the risk reduction. However, the accuracy of risk perception assumptions may be questionable. This issue has not been resolved with respect to adult risk reductions and becomes even more complicated when considering risk reductions to small children. We report results from focus groups with parents of small children regarding their risk perceptions over organic and conventional babyfood. Our results yield surprisingly consistent results between scientific and perceived risks. Previous literature reports a scientific risk reduction estimate of 1.98 per million, reflecting the reduced risk of death from cancer by avoiding pesticides in foods during the first year of life. The results from our focus groups show that parents estimate that the median risk reduction ranges from 1 to 8 per million, depending on specific demographic characteristics. Individuals with less than a four-year college degree provide the highest estimates, while women, those with more education and purchasers of organic babyfood provide lower estimates. We use these results to estimate parental willingness to pay for pesticide risk reductions to their children. Results show that parents in our focus groups who purchase organic babyfood express a value of a statistical cancer of approximately $9 million. These results provide a lower bound on the estimate for the value of reduced cancer risk from pesticide exposure in the first year of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelly B. Maguire & Nicole Owens & Nathalie B. Simon, 2004. "Focus on Babies: Evidence on Parental Attitudes Towards Pesticide Risks," NCEE Working Paper Series 200402, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Mar 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:nev:wpaper:wp200402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/working-paper-focus-babies-evidence-parental-attitudes-towards-pesticide
    File Function: First version, 2004
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Govindasamy, Ramu & Italia, John & Adelaja, Adesoji O., 1998. "Predicting Consumer Risk Aversions to Synthetic Pesticide Residues: A Logistic Analysis," P Series 36740, Rutgers University, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics.
    2. Ted Gayer & James T. Hamilton & W. Kip Viscusi, 2002. "The Market Value of Reducing Cancer Risk: Hedonic Housing Prices with Changing Information," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 266-289, October.
    3. Harris, J. Michael, 1997. "Consumers Pay a Premium for Organic Baby Foods," Food Review/ National Food Review, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 20(2), pages 1-4.
    4. Byrne, Patrick J. & Toensmeyer, Ulrich C. & German, Carl L. & Muller, H. Reed, 1991. "Analysis Of Consumer Attitudes Toward Organic Produce Purchase Likelihood," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 22(2), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Chris Dockins & Robin R. Jenkins & Nicole Owens & Nathalie B. Simon & Lanelle Bembenek Wiggins, 2002. "Valuation of Childhood Risk Reduction: The Importance of Age, Risk Preferences, and Perspective," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 335-346, April.
    6. Moore, Michael J & Viscusi, W Kip, 1990. "Models for Estimating Discount Rates for Long-term Health Risks Using Labor Market Data," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 381-401, December.
    7. Gerking, Shelby & de Haan, Menno & Schulze, William, 1988. "The Marginal Value of Job Safety: A Contingent Valuation Study," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 185-199, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. James Hammitt & Jin-Tan Liu, 2004. "Effects of Disease Type and Latency on the Value of Mortality Risk," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 73-95, January.
    2. Anna Alberini & Stefania Tonin & Margherita Turvani & Aline Chiabai, 2007. "Paying for permanence: Public preferences for contaminated site cleanup," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 155-178, April.
    3. Georges Dionne & Paul Lanoie, 2002. "How to Make a Public Choice About the Value of a Statistical Life: The Case of Road Safety," Cahiers de recherche 02-04, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée.
    4. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    5. Viscusi, W Kip, 1993. "The Value of Risks to Life and Health," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1912-1946, December.
    6. Wiktor Adamowicz & Mark Dickie & Shelby Gerking & Marcella Veronesi & David Zinner, 2014. "Household Decision Making and Valuation of Environmental Health Risks to Parents and Their Children," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 481-519.
    7. Rodríguez, Elsa Mirta M. & Lacaze, María Victoria & Lupín, Beatriz, 2007. "Willingness to pay for organic food in Argentina: evidence from a consumer survey," Nülan. Deposited Documents 1300, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    8. Devi, P. Indira & Shanmugam, K.R. & Jayasree, M.G., 2012. "Compensating Wages for Occupational Risks of Farm Workers in India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 67(2), pages 1-12.
    9. Mark Egan & Tomas Philipson, 2016. "Health Care Adherence and Personalized Medicine," Working Papers 2016-H01, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    10. Anna Alberini & Alan Krupnick & Maureen Cropper & Nathalie Simon & Joseph Cook, 2002. "The Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Comparison of the United States and Canada," CESifo Working Paper Series 668, CESifo.
    11. Herrera-Araujo, Daniel & Rochaix, Lise, 2020. "Does the Value per Statistical Life vary with age or baseline health? Evidence from a compensating wage study in France," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Peter Arcidiacono & Holger Sieg & Frank Sloan, 2007. "Living Rationally Under The Volcano? An Empirical Analysis Of Heavy Drinking And Smoking," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(1), pages 37-65, February.
    13. Alberini, Anna & Ščasný, Milan, 2018. "The benefits of avoiding cancer (or dying from cancer): Evidence from a four- country study," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 249-262.
    14. Agamoni Majumder & S. Madheswaran, 2022. "Discounting Long-Term Job-Related Health Risks in the Context of Indian Workers," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1099-1120, December.
    15. Cameron, Trudy Ann & DeShazo, J.R. & Johnson, Erica H., 2010. "The effect of children on adult demands for health-risk reductions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 364-376, May.
    16. Dennis Guignet & Anna Alberini, 2015. "Can Property Values Capture Changes in Environmental Health Risks? Evidence from a Stated Preference Study in Italy and the United Kingdom," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(3), pages 501-517, March.
    17. Dennis Guignet & Anna Alberini, 2013. "Can Property Values Capture Changes in Environmental Health Risks? Evidence from a Stated Preference Study in Italy and the UK," Working Papers 2013.67, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. Konstantinos, Pouliakas & Ioannis, Theodossiou, 2010. "An Inquiry Into the Theory, Causes and Consequences of Monitoring Indicators of Health and Safety At Work," MPRA Paper 20336, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Liu, Xiangping, 2016. "Disentangling property value impacts of environmental contamination from locally undesirable land uses: Implications for measuring post-cleanup stigmaAuthor-Name: Taylor, Laura O," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 85-98.
    20. Olivier Armantier, 2006. "Estimates of Own Lethal Risks and Anchoring Effects," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 37-56, January.

    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:nev:wpaper:wp200402. 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: Cynthia Morgan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nepgvus.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.