This study illustrates an application of experimental auction methods, using both experimental economics and experimental design, to evaluate consumer perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh pork chops. We test and reject hypotheses that (a) market prices and consumers' WTP are unaffected by the level of attributes embodied in the pork chops, (b) appearance (based on photographs or actual product) and actual taste are equally good sources of consumer information, and (c) consumers are consistent in their preferences for fresh pork attributes. A major conclusion is that predicting consumer demand for fresh pork (or any fresh food) based on appearance without tasting is unproductive. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.

A procedure to estimate economic values for use in selection indices is developed. A profit function is specified and a production function that links output to the several inputs developed. The profit function is maximized by equating the partial derivatives of the function with respect to each input to zero and simultaneously solving the resulting system of first-order equations for optimal levels of the variables. These variables include economic values for animal traits and levels of exogenous, producer-supplied inputs. The economic values are then used in a selection index. The resulting index value is therefore determined by the average values of the traits, the available inputs and their prices, output price and the specified production function. The procedure has the flexibility, through varying these parameters, to provide index solutions that are tailored to suit individual production conditions. A numerical example is provided.

Many fresh foods, such as h i t s , vegetables, and meats, exhibit nearly continuous quality differences that cause consumers to value similar, but not identical, packages or lots of the food differently. Fresh pork chops are among the foods that typically exhibit these quality differences. Thus, although several packages of pork chops may be available at a particular price per pound, consumers will typically select among them based on perceived or expected quality differences. How consumers perceive and value these quality differences is of great interest to pork producers and grocery store managers. For example, it is unclear whether consumers perceive the same attributes when viewing advertising as they perceive in the actual product. Also unclear is how appearance relates to consumers' perceptions of taste or how attribute values change as consumers obtain new information (advertising versus appearance versus taste) about the product. Answers to these questions might signal changes in genetics and management of pork production and in the type of pork that grocery stores stock in meat counters. This may also provide advertisers, retailers, and other pork marketers with new information about fresh pork demand and how consumers perceive and value pork quality attributes. Such information is essential to effective pork advertising and marketing programs, such as the "Other White Meat"@ campaign of the National Pork Producer's Council (h' PPC).

Previous Input Characteristics Models (ICMs) are modified and extended to allow the economic values of individual genetic characteristics to be imputed, even when those characteristics are acquired in largely inseparable bundles such as in the animal breed or plant variety decision of commercial producers. Through analysis of the commercial breed selection decision for a representative beef producer, the extended ICM is shown to generally be more flexible, with less restrictive data requirements for estimation, than prior ICMs. Additional modifications of the extended ICM method of analysis are suggested to further enhance and broaden its applicability.

The effects of unionization, technology, and structural considerations on value-added beef and pork packing costs and the demand for labor, capital, packaging, and other inputs are analyzed by econometric methods for the period 1963-88. Although unions do not appear to have had significant wage effects over this period (relative to broader U.S. wage rates), significant nonwage cost effects are observed. These nonwage effects help explain the technological, structural, and geographic changes that have occurred in meat packing in recent years which, in turn, help explain the erosion of union strength in meat packing observed over the study period.