Conference Agenda

Wild meat consumption plays an important role in food systems and livelihoods across many developing regions, yet little is known about how consumers allocate demand across different wild meat types sold within the same market. This paper estimates a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) for bats, pigs, and pythons using market-day transaction data from North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The analysis provides one of the first sets of wild meat type level own- and cross-price elasticity estimates based on observed market behavior. All three wild meat types are normal goods, with positive and statistically significant expenditure elasticities. Bat and python expenditures increase less than proportionally with total wild meat spending, while pig expenditures rise more than proportionally. Distinguishing between uncompensated and compensated price elasticities shows that consumer responses are driven primarily by income effects rather than pure substitution. Compensated substitution effects are weak for bats and pythons, while pig demand exhibits stronger price sensitivity. Addressing price and expenditure endogeneity using a control-function approach, the results suggest that price-based conservation interventions targeting single wild meat types are more likely to reduce overall wild meat consumption than to induce substitution across wildlife products.