African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics Volume 14 Number 1 pages 56-71 The role of cattle attributes in buyers’ choices in Benin Thierry A. Kinkpé Laboratoire d’Analyse et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Economiques et Sociales (LARDES), Université de Parakou, BP 123 Parakou, Bénin. E-mail:
[email protected] Rodrigue V.C. Diogo Département des Sciences et Techniques de Productions Animale et Halieutique, Faculté d’Agronomie, Université de Parakou, BP 123 Parakou, Bénin. E-mail:
[email protected] Cokou P. Kpadé Université Nationale d’Agriculture, BP 43 Kétou, Bénin. E-mail:
[email protected] Jacob A. Yabi Laboratoire d’Analyse et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Economiques et Sociales (LARDES), Université de Parakou, BP 123 Parakou, Bénin. E-mail:
[email protected] Luc H. Dossa* Ecole des Sciences et Techniques de Production Animale, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d’Abomey- Calavi, 03 BP 2819 Cotonou Jéricho, Bénin. E-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author Abstract This article investigated the role of cattle attributes in buyers’ choices and hedonic pricing in Benin. Cross-sectional data were collected on 347 market cattle transactions using the revealed preference method. Both statistical tests and hedonic price models were performed. The results show that the most important criteria guiding cattle buyers’ choices were the health status of the cattle, and their body condition, price, age and category. The most important cattle attributes determining the price were the live weight, the subspecies and the breed, the origin, the category and the coat colour. In contrast to the zebu subspecies, taurine subspecies and related breeds had significantly positive hedonic prices.