ALL FOR EFFICIENCY AND EFFICIENCY FOR ALL -- DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT "COSTLY" NEW QUALITY ATTRIBUTES IN FOOD PRODUCTS

As new quality attributes for food products emerge, questions arise about the relative "efficiencies" of alternative market responses to these changes. This paper discusses two closely related issues: different perspectives about "efficiency" found in the literature, and the potential responses to the introduction of new food product attributes by individual firms. Comparing different understandings of "efficiency" and analyzing different firm-level market responses lead to conclusions about the use of "efficiency" for prescriptive decisions by firms and value-laden recommendations by economists.