Price of change: Does a small alteration to the price of meat and vegetarian options affect their sales?
Price of change: Does a small alteration to the price of meat and vegetarian options affect their sales?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101589
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发表时间：
2021-03-25
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Sandbrook, Chris
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Garnett, Emma E.;Balmford, Andrew;Sandbrook, Chris
减少富裕国家的肉类和鱼类消费将有助于减缓气候变化，这就提出了实现这一目标的最有效方法的问题。价格会影响人们购买的食物，但据我们所知，还没有公开的实地研究评估过实验性地改变肉类和素食的价格对销售的影响。我们在英国剑桥大学的一个大学食堂进行了一项实验，在106个用餐时间内选择了13,840种食物，对素食餐的价格进行了小幅调整（从2.05磅降至1.85磅，减少了20便士），对肉类餐的价格进行了小幅调整（从2.52磅增至2.72磅，增加了20便士）。总的膳食销售额在价格变化前后没有显着差异。在控制其他变量的情况下，价格变化使素食销售比例显著增加了3.2个百分点（p = 0.036）。然而，在价格变化前后，肉类销售没有显著变化，尽管鱼类销售确实下降了2.8个百分点（p = 0.010）。当分析个体用餐者的实验前膳食选择（N = 325）时，价格干预仅显著影响了素食和纯素膳食选择率最高的四分位数（“MostVeg”四分位数），他们的素食选择增加了13.7个百分点（p = 0.011）。学生主要用大学卡支付餐费，很少用现金支付，这可能会减少在这种情况下价格干预的影响。我们的研究结果表明，价格变化可能是增加素食消费的一个杠杆。需要进一步的实地研究，以测试不同的价格变化，并在非大学人口。
Reducing meat and fish consumption in wealthier countries would help mitigate climate change, raising the question of the most effective ways to achieve this. Price influences the food people buy, but to our knowledge no published field study has assessed the impact on sales of experimentally altering the price of meat and vegetarian meal options. We ran an experiment across 106 mealtimes with 13,840 meal selections at a college cafeteria in the University of Cambridge (UK), introducing a small change to the price of vegetarian meals (decreased by 20p from 2.05 pound to 1.85) pound and meat meals (increased by 20p from 2.52 pound to 2.72) pound. Total meal sales did not differ significantly before and after the price change. When controlling for other variables, changing price significantly increased the proportion of vegetarian sales by 3.2 percentage points (p = 0.036). However, there was no significant change in meat sales before and after the price change, although fish sales did decline by 2.8 percentage points (p = 0.010). When analysed by individual diners' pre-experimental meal choices (N = 325), the price intervention significantly affected only the quartile of diners with the highest prior rates of vegetarian and vegan meal selection ("MostVeg" quartile), who increased their vegetarian meal selection by 13.7 percentage points (p = 0.011). Students mainly pay for meals on their university cards and rarely pay with cash, which may lessen the impact of a price intervention in this context. Our results suggest price changes may be one lever for increasing vegetarian meal consumption. Further field studies are needed to test different price changes, and in non-university populations.