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Thread: Economic Naturalist Question #10. Why are brown eggs more expensive than white ones? 
In an earlier thread, I explored why introductory economics courses appear to leave little lasting imprint on the millions of students who take them each year:
Students learn more effectively when they pose interesting questions based on personal experience, and then use basic economic principles to help answer them. This exercise became what I call my “economic naturalist” writing assignment.
My former student Jonathan Chang’s paper began with the observation that Ithaca’s largest supermarket sells jumbo grade AA eggs for $3.09 a dozen if their shells are white but for $3.79 a dozen if their shells are brown.
According to the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C., neither the taste of an egg nor its nutritional quality depends on the color of its shell. What explains this price difference?
It is tempting to say that brown eggs are more expensive because consumers prefer their looks and are more willing to pay extra for them. But that explanation seems to violate what economists call the no-cash-on-the-table principle.
According to that principle, sellers seldom allow profit opportunities to remain unexploited for long. If they could earn higher profits by selling only brown eggs, why do they continue selling white ones?
A plausible answer is that that brown eggs are more costly to produce than white ones. The color of an egg depends on the breed of hen that lays it. White Leghorn hens, for example, lay white eggs, and Rhode Island Red hens lay brown ones.
Brown hens tend to be larger than white ones, and since a hen’s daily calorie requirement depends on its size, producing brown eggs costs more. But to explain why they sell for more, an important condition must also be present on the demand side.
Unless some consumers prefer the looks of brown eggs and are willing to pay more for them, they will not be offered for sale. So if you’re not one of those consumers, you should probably buy only white-shelled eggs.
