Mobilising the public to fight poverty using anti-poverty labels in online food markets: Evidence from a real experimental auction

In an emerging economy like China where the domestic income inequality has dramatically increased between middle-class urban consumers and poor rural farmers, food grown by poor farmers with poverty alleviation labels may receive price premiums from consumers with multiple incentives. To reveal consumers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for anti-poverty labelled food, we implement a non-hypothetical Becker–DeGroot–Marschak auction online experiment for apples with real shoppers. Results show that consumers are willing to pay 3.66 RMB extra for each kilogram of apples with anti-poverty labels, indicating the opportunities for using voluntary public food consumption to supplement the government's anti-poverty responsibilities. Consumers who are more empathic, who believe that anti-poverty products have higher quality, who have donated money within the past year, and who are not involve with anti-poverty related production or selling processes are willing to pay more. Additionally, three different information treatments (a beneficiary description, an appreciation certificate and a government promotion document) were found to increase consumers' WTP for anti-poverty products. Treatment effects are different among consumers with different demographic characters and perspectives about the anti-poverty label. Lastly, anti-poverty labels can attract consumers for trial purchase but are not sufficient to lead consumers to make repeat purchases.