Animal welfare as a public good

Résumé

We study a simple model of consumption of animals in which consumers exhibit altruism towards animals. Consumers can choose both the quantity and the quality of animal lives. This model gives rise to a public good problem: at the market equilibrium, quality is too low, and quantity is too high when animal lives are not worth living. We discuss some implications of our results and the significance of our modeling choices for the future landscape of economic research on animal welfare.