Responsible antibiotic use labelling and consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for fluid milk.

The experiment was conducted in two ways: (1) by means of a nationally representative survey of US adults, and (2) by means of a randomized experimental auction with real money and real milk.

The results showed that almost half (48.5%) of the survey participants responded that they would buy a RAU-labelled milk. However, consumers in the experimental auction refused to pay a significant premium for the milk compared with unlabeled milk. The mean willingness to pay (and 95% confidence interval) per half-gallon was $1.92 ($1.65–$2.19) for RAU-labelled milk versus $1.86 ($1.58–$2.13) for unlabeled milk.

These results suggest that consumers’ survey-identified preferences for RAU-labelled milk could reflect either social desirability bias or a genuine preference for which, however, they simply will not pay a significant premium.