Preferences for wine and food consumption in China.

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate Chinese consumers' preferences for wine and food products. The dissertation consists of four related articles. The first two articles study the emerging consumer market for wine in China. The first article utilizes an experimental auction method to elicit Chinese consumers' willingness-to-pay for wine products from four different countries: China, the US, France, and Australia. A linear model is estimated based on imputed data sets to analyze how the willingness-to-pay of the participants is determined by controlling factors, socio-demographics, and information exposure. In the second article, a logistic regression model is applied to analyze how purchasing habits and behavior are related to socio-demographics, and to predict the probability of potential wine consumption occurrence and frequency in a short-term. Marketing implications for wine exporters are discussed.;The third article investigates food consumption by degree of processing in Chinese households based on the household survey conducted in Beijing in 2007. A Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) was utilized to estimate both the expenditure and price elasticities for nine groups of food. The QUAIDS approach in this dissertation is considered as a Seemingly Unrelated Regression-Tobit model, so Bayesian estimation is applied, which can incorporate the Gibbs sampler to solve the problem of a large amount of zero observations. Findings include that raw meat is more price-elastic than semi-processed and processed meats. Seafood is price-inelastic in all three processed degrees. The expenditure elasticities for vegetables are all larger than those for meat. Most of the expenditure elasticities are greater than one, and most categories of food exhibit more income-responsive market behavior.;The fourth article examines the increase in the consumption of western-style breakfast in Chinese households. Data from a 2007 survey and food diary of consumers in Beijing is examined using a Poisson model to measure the effects of demographics on consumption of western products. Findings include that younger adults and those with smaller families are more likely to consume western-style breakfast items. Income and education both have a marginally significant positive effect on consumption.