Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149897 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 1634
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
This paper experimentally investigates how concerns for social approval relate to intrinsic motivations to purchase ethically. Participants state their willingness-to-pay for both a fair trade and a conventional chocolate bar in private or publicly. A standard model of social image predicts that all increase their fair trade premium when facing an audience. We find that the premium is higher in public than in private only for participants who preferred a conventional over a fair trade chocolatebar in a pre-lab choice. This is captured by a generalized model where intrinsic preferences and the concern for social approval are negatively correlated.
Subjects: 
image concerns
ethical consumption
fair trade
social approval
crowding out
experiments
JEL: 
D03
C91
D12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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