Public and Private Preferences for Animal Cloning Policies

By: Brooks, Kathleen R.; Lusk, Jayson L.
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Citation

Brooks, Kathleen R.; Lusk, Jayson L., Public and Private Preferences for Animal Cloning Policies, Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Volume 37, Issue 3, December 2012, Pages 485-501

Data on individuals’ private shopping choices are often used to draw conclusions about their desires for food policies. The purpose of this paper is to test this often-implicit assumption using data from a nationwide survey about animal cloning. We find that although individuals’ private choices indicate a strong desire to avoid meat and milk from cloned cattle, public choices predict that only 40.29% have a positive WTP for such a ban. The results suggest caution is necessary when inferring public preferences from private choices.