Product Differentiation and Consumer Preferences for Non-market Product Attributes: A Literature Review

Abstract

Understanding consumer perspectives and preferences for product attributes that are hard for consumers to know without information (non-market attributes) allows producers of goods with these attributes to make more informed production decisions. The ability to understand consumer preferences for non-market goods often depends on product labeling, certification, and traceability to increase the consumer confidence in claims about a product. This report details the literature on each of these componets that impact a consumer’s willingness to pay for products that increase the circular economy. Resource utilization and efficiency is an important part of creating a circular economy, which focuses on keeping every molecule of productive capacity in the economy and eliminating waste. This literature review focuses on many product categories that have attributes that are hard to distinguish such as the origin of materials used for production.

Christina Gore

Research Economist

I am a research economist in the Applied Economics Office at NIST, working on environmental, behavioral, and community resilience economics.