Measuring Motivations for Choosing Ecolabeled Seafood: Environmental Concerns and Warm Glow

Ecolabels are supposed to reduce the information asymmetry between producers and consumers, but they may also produce a warm glow of "green" behavior. We design discrete choice experiments to measure the relative importance of these motivations for choosing ecolabeled seafood products. We find that choice probability increases if the product carries an ecolabel, but the magnitude of this effect depends on the information provided about the sustainability of the product. Overall, we attribute 63% of the ecolabel's original effect on choice probability to consumer demand for sustainable products, and a further 24% to warm glow. (JEL C25, Q21) in the Netherlands should be MSC-certified (Marx, Maertens, and Swinnen 2012). Lidl Germany and Lidl UK only sell MSC-labeled wild fish from 2017 onward, and from 2018 all farmed fish in the assortment will be certified by Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) or organic (Lidl 2018).