ARE ECO-LABELS VALUABLE? EVIDENCE FROM THE APPAREL INDUSTRY

Using U.S. apparel catalogue data, we estimate hedonic price functions to identify market valuation of environmental attributes of apparel goods. We identify a significant and robust premium for the organic fibers embodied in the apparel goods. We find an additional organic premium for baby items. However, we do not find evidence of a premium for environment-friendly dyes. We further investigate the pricing behavior of apparel suppliers for potential departure from competitive pricing of this environmental attribute and find no evidence different premium across firms, suggesting price-taking behavior in the environmental attribute space.