A series of safety incidents related to domestically-produced infant formulas (DIFs) almost destroyed Chinese consumer confidence in domestic dairy products.  Understanding consumer confidence and its effect on consumption behavior is important to restore consumer confidence and enhance the competitiveness of domestic dairy industry.  This article first measures Chinese consumer confidence in DIFs safety using a two-dimension scale (optimism and pessimism) and then investigates its effect on consumers’ preferences for DIFs through a choice experiment.  Involving 450 consumers residing in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, the experiment elicited information on their preferences for DIFs with six attributes (organic raw milk, farm-to-table traceability, region of origin, quality certification, animal welfare, and price).  Our analysis yields four findings.  First, Chinese consumers still lack confidence in DIFs safety.  Second, quality certification is the most preferred product characteristic, followed by organic raw milk and farm-to-table traceability.  Third, serving as a signal of high quality, price exerts a positive impact on choices of DIFs for pessimistic consumers.  Finally, consumer preferences for farm-to-table traceability and region of origin are significantly influenced by consumer confidence.

Malnutrition and mental health problems are both prevalent among rural students in China.  To provide a better understanding of the functional linkage between these two problems, this study estimates the causal effect of improved nutrition on rural students’ mental health status, exploiting a randomized controlled trial involving 6 044 fourth and fifth graders in rural northwestern China.  Estimation results show that a nutrition subsidy provided by the project significantly improved students’ mental health status (measured by their anxiety scale).  However, an add-on incentive provided to school principals, which was tied to anemia reduction, almost entirely offset the beneficial impact of the nutrition subsidy.  These findings suggest that to improve students’ mental health in rural China, not only direct subsidies, such as low-priced school meals, but also correct incentives, especially those tied closely to students’ mental health outcomes, should be provided.