Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/235016 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
AWI Discussion Paper Series No. 693
Publisher: 
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
We provide causal evidence on how date marking policies influence consumers' valuation of perishable food products through three consecutive research steps. In a preparatory in-store survey (n = 100), we identify perishable food items that can be experimentally manipulated to overcome core challenges for causal identification. A modified in-store multiple price list (MPL) experiment (n = 200) then tests consumers' valuation of perishable food of varying shelf-life (expiry date) in a two-by-two design that varies date mark type(use-by versus best-before) and information status while preventing free disposal censoring. We find that expiry dates affect consumer valuation, but not differences in date mark type. Educating consumers about date mark meaning turns out to be conducive to discarding potentially unsafe food, but not to preventing food waste. An attentiveness experiment (n = 160) tests whether these treatment effects plausibly result from the nature of consumers' knowledge and finds that the existing asymmetry in consumers' understanding of current date marks can explain the evidence from the modified MPL experiment.
Subjects: 
date marking
food waste
consumer valuation
information-based policies
multiple price list experiment
in-store experiment
JEL: 
D12
C93
Q53
Q18
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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