Quantification of a diet's value using hedonic analysis: Integrating a health aspect

Abstract

Abstract Healthy food diversity (HFD) is a principle recommendation of nutrition societies around the world. This paper quantifies a diet's value by analysing consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for HFD in Germany using hedonic price technique. The dependent variable is consumers’ per unit expenditure for food items. An instrumental-variable regression with a Box–Cox transformation is conducted with HFD and other nutritional characteristics as explanatory variables. The regression coefficients show that consumers have a positive preference for HFD, calories and vitamin C and a negative preference for calcium. The WTP for overall dietary quality, expressed by HFD, is lower than for caloric density. Consumers with high education levels and those who reveal a positive (negative) attitude towards health, manage to obtain HFD with less (more) costly food items per unit.