Resolvable and Near‐epistemic Uncertainty in Stated Preference for Olive Oil: An Empirical Exploration

We elicit subjective probabilities of choice using a choice experiment designed tostudy preferences of German consumers for high quali ty Italian extra-virgin oliveoils. We develop an econometric framework to address the issues of resolvable andnear-epistemic uncertainty. Focussing on behaviourally meaningful quantitieslinked to changes in oil attributes, such as marginal probabilities and marginal will-ingness to pay, we found estimates of these quantities to be robust to both types ofuncertainty from both discrete and fractional elicitation formats of the responsevariable. The frequency and presence of potentially near-epistemic responses areexplained by socio-economic covariates, but their effects are not always in the samedirection as in models of heteroskedastic choice, suggesting the existence of differ-ent sources. Rounding behaviour in subjective probabilities statements conformswith previous findings in the literat ure.