Is pain management embedded in animal welfare? Evidence from a choice experiment with beef steak and milk consumers in the United States

Consumers of products from food animals in general have a positive attitude toward the animal welfare attribute. However, animal welfare has various dimensions (e.g. cage-free, grass-fed, pain management), and there is little research to inform if the animal welfare attribute and its dimensions are complements or substitutes. We address the gap in the literature with a choice experiment to elicit preferences for the animal welfare attribute and the pain management attribute from 704 beef steak and 1,261 milk consumers in the United States. Using WTP-space mixed logit models, we find that (1) in isolation animal welfare and pain management each capture a positive and significant WTP, and (2) in combination animal welfare and pain management are complementary and raise total WTP. Additionally, we find certification of the pain management attribute by private or public institutions is of importance to the magnitude of the WTP.