Voting or Buying: Inconsistency in Preferences toward Food Safety in Restaurants
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Consumers sometimes prefer stricter food regulations as voters than as consumers.
A prime example is that battery-cage eggs were the most sold types of eggs in California in
2008 when 63% of voters supported the animal welfare proposition forbidding battery-cage
eggs starting from from 2015. In this paper, we investigate whether a similar consumer-citizen
duality might exist in willingness to pay for food safety standards in restaurants. Using a split
sample willingness to pay survey we find that consumers have a higher willingness to pay for
improved restaurant food safety standards when voting than when acting as consumers. The
results are discussed in the light of the literature on trust, social choice and public choice
theory.