the just price three insights from the salamanca school in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries members of the salamanca school engaged in a sustained and sophisticated discussion of the issue of just prices this article uses their contribution as a point of departure for a consideration of justice in pricing which will be relevant to current day circumstances the key theses of members of this school were that fairness of exchanges should be assessed objectively that the fair price of an article is one equal to its value and that the best indicator of that value is the price that article commonly fetches in an open market this article tries to bring to light the attractiveness of those views in order to guide current practice by contrasting them with alternative views showing their connection with intuitively attractive basic standards and linking them to commonly shared intuitions

fighting the tide alternative trade organizations in the era of global free trade a comment summary leclair leclair m s 2002 fighting the tide alternative trade organizations in the era of global free trade world development 30 6 949 958 concludes that in theory fair trade is a second best alternative to aid may impose losses on non fair trade producers and prolongs dependence on unsustainable modes of production this paper shows how these conclusions depend upon a particular definition of subsidy and upon the assumptions of full employment and that fair trade goods face price inelastic demand an adverse impact on non fair trade producers is possible but not intrinsic and the claim of economic inefficiency cannot be sustained within a more general analysis

fair trade and the depersonalization of ethics fair trade has changed considerably since its early days in this article we argue that these changes have led to a depersonalization of ethics thus raising serious questions about the future of fair trade in particular the depersonalization of ethics which is seen to accompany the current changes has led to greater variety in the interpretations of fair trade hiding these divergences behind the labels is increasing the risk that the movement will lose its credibility

the development of a market for sustainable coffee in the netherlands rethinking the contribution of fair trade in recent years researchers have observed the process of mainstreaming fair trade and the emergence of alternative sustainability standards in the coffee industry the underlying market dynamics that have contributed to these developments are however under researched insight into these dynamics is important to understand how markets can develop to favor sustainability this study examines the major developments in the market for certified coffee in the netherlands it finds that in the creation of a market for sustainable coffee decisions that significantly influence market creation are made in the lead companies retailers and coffee roasters these decisions are made possible by the availability of multiple systems of sustainability standards and by the existence of a small segment of loyal fair trade customers that ensured that sustainability remained an issue on the coffee market in the years before the market creation took off fair trade did not become the new rule in this process but it became the benchmark against which companies could compare themselves and the basis upon which they built in adopting or developing new standards that would be more feasible in their business models

fair trade towards an economics of virtue over the past 10 years the sales of fair trade goods particularly those carrying the fair trade labelling organizations international flo certification mark have grown exponentially academic interest in fair trade has also grown significantly over the past decade with researchers analysing the model from a wide range of theoretical perspectives whilst fair trade is generally acknowledged as a new supply chain model it has tended to be studied at the micro organisational level rather than at the macro systems level as a consequence its wider impact as institutional innovation at the field level appears to have been under theorised so far in order to address this research gap this article uses a neo institutionalist perspective to analyse fair trade not simply as a new exchange model working within existing organisational and economic structures but rather as an agent of institutional entrepreneurship at and beyond the field level from this latter perspective fair trade brings a new set of transformational meanings to extant exchange and consumption models and reforms fields of economic exchange by disrupting and then re assembling key institutional elements around modern consumption to roll back commodity fetishism and reconnect consumers and producers the type of institutional change driven by fair trade can be seen as a form of social entrepreneurship

vive la difference social banks and reciprocity in the credit market social banks are financial intermediaries paying attention to non economic i e social ethical and environmental criteria to investigate the behavior of social banks on the credit market this paper proposes both theory and empirics our theoretical model rationalizes the idea that reciprocity can generate better repayment performances based on a unique hand collected dataset released by a french social bank our empirical results are twofold first we show that the bank charges below market interest rates for social projects second regardless of their creditworthiness motivated borrowers respond to advantageous credit terms by significantly lowering their probability of default we interpret this outcome as the first evidence of reciprocity in the credit market

do farmers benefit from participating in specialty markets and cooperatives the case of coffee marketing in costa rica1 historically low prices in the conventional coffee market have caused financial and social hardship among coffee farmers in the face of this crisis specialty markets have attracted the attention of the international donor community these market segments have shown consistent growth over the last decade and exhibit price premiums in international markets therefore if higher prices are passed on to farmers access to specialty markets could help to alleviate the crisis brought on by low prices in the conventional sector the present study attempts to identify the factors that determine farmers participation in specialized markets and whether participation in these markets leads to higher prices for farmers a two stage model is used to analyze farmers marketing decisions and their effect on the prices received this procedure allows us to control for the endogeneity bias introduced by the marketing choice our results indicate that farmers participating in the specialty coffee segment do in fact receive higher prices than those participating in conventional channels additionally we find that participation in cooperatives has a positive impact on the probability that a farmer chooses to grow specialty coffee and analogously on the prices that they receive based on these results it seems that efforts to increase participation in the specialty coffee segment and in cooperatives would help to lessen some of the hardships brought on by low prices in the conventional coffee sector

the effect of fair trade affiliation on child schooling evidence from a sample of chilean honey producers we evaluate the impact of fair trade ft affiliation on child schooling within a sample of chilean honey producers with a retrospective panel data approach from a theoretical point of view we argue that ft should have a positive effect on child schooling since it generates a short run pure income effect together with a medium run productivity effect on both adult and child wages on the other hand because of the higher productivity generated by the medium run effect the opportunity cost of child education increases if they work with their parents the direction of the impact of ft affiliation on child schooling is therefore uncertain and requires empirical testing our econometric findings document a positive and significant impact of affiliation years on child schooling after controlling for endogeneity and heterogeneity between the treatment and control sample

upgrading primary production a global commodity chain approach abstract global commodity chain gcc analysis has been concerned mainly with examining power relations in global manufacturing industries although it has been preoccupied increasingly by the question of how developing country dc producers can upgrade this paper extends gcc analysis to traditional primary commodities where international traders exercise the driving role and suggests a new agenda for their upgrading in dcs based upon public action

virtuous interactions in removing exclusion the link between foreign market access and access to education abstract we outline a methodology which aims to give an answer to the widespread demand of impact analyses by regulators or by funding agencies which need to evaluate the current and past performance of development projects and may lack time series evidence we devise a retrospective panel data approach to evaluate the dynamics of the effects of fair trade affiliation on the schooling decisions of a sample of thai organic rice producers across the past 20 years we find that the probability of school enrolment in families with more than two children is significantly affected by fair trade affiliation years we try to ascertain whether our finding is robust to endogeneity of producers choices of local cooperative affiliation and adoption of organic techniques the significant difference between pre and post fair trade affiliation performance documents that fair trade participation generates a significant break in the schooling decisions of affiliated households

confronting the coffee crisis can fair trade organic and specialty coffees reduce small scale farmer vulnerability in northern nicaragua summary this paper links changing global coffee markets to opportunities and vulnerabilities for sustaining small scale farmer livelihoods in northern nicaragua changing governance structures corporate concentration oversupply interchangeable commodity grade beans and low farm gate prices characterize the crisis in conventional coffee markets in contrast certified fair trade and organic are two alternative forms of specialty coffee trade and production that may offer opportunities for small scale producers a research team surveyed 228 farmers to measure the impact of sales on organic and fair trade markets the results suggest that participation in organic and fair trade networks reduces farmers livelihood vulnerability 2004 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

trade and industrial policy on an uneven playing field the case of the deciduous fruit canning industry in south africa the deciduous fruit canning industry dfci is a resource and labor intensive industry with a high trade ratio it offers the prospect of being a significant source of employment and export earnings for a number of southern hemisphere countries which enjoy a considerable comparative advantage market distortions severely constrain this outcome however most importantly a combination of protection and subsidies in the industrially advanced countries in addition as in other sectors globalization is increasingly associated with processes in which value added activities are located in the major markets of the industrialized countries this paper examines the dfci in south africa and explores the consequences of market distortions and the shifting location of profitable activities for both industrial and trade policy in that country

towards a framework for understanding fairtrade purchase intention in the mainstream environment of supermarkets despite growing interest in ethical consumer behaviour research ambiguity remains regarding what motivates consumers to purchase ethical products while researchers largely attribute the growth of ethical consumerism to an increase in ethical consumer concerns and motivations widened distribution mainstreaming of ethical products such as fairtrade questions these assumptions a model that integrates both individual and societal values into the theory of planned behaviour is presented and empirically tested to challenge the assumption that ethical consumption is driven by ethical considerations alone using data sourced from fairtrade shoppers across the uk structural equation modelling suggests that fairtrade purchase intention is driven by both societal and self interest values this dual value pathway helps address conceptual limitations inherent in the underlying assumptions of existing ethical purchasing behaviour models and helps advance understanding of consumers motivation to purchase ethical products

the dynamics of fair trade as a mixed form market this article analyses the fair trade sector as a mixed form market i e a market in which different types of players in this case nonprofit co operative and for profit organizations coexist and compete the purposes of this article are 1 to understand the factors that have led fair trade to become a mixed form market and 2 to propose some trails to understand the market dynamics that result from the interactions between the different types of players we start by defining briefly fair trade its different dimensions including the fair quality of the products and its organizational landscape focusing on the distinction between the pioneer alternative trading organizations and the second mover companies then we recall the theoretical emergence factors for each type of organization nonprofit co operative and for profit and apply these emergence factors to the context of fair trade this analysis allows us to capture the specificities of each type of operator with regard to fair trade and thus to have a better understanding of the dynamics in the sector such dynamics includes competition but also conflict and partnership our analysis includes elements on ethical imitation consumers behaviors effects on welfare and the role of the government

is there a fair in fair trade social dominance orientation influences perceptions of and preferences for fair trade products in recent years there has been a surge in popularity of the fair trade industry which seeks to improve trading conditions and to promote the rights of marginalized workers although research suggests that fair trade products are perceived as promoting social and economic responsibility some individuals namely those who seek to maintain existing group inequalities i e those high in social dominance orientation or sdo or those induced to think inequality is a good thing may not share this perception across three studies we found that 1 sdo relates negatively to fair trade consumption and 2 this relationship is mediated by the tendency for high sdo individuals to see fair trade products as less compatible with their conception of social justice our findings held after controlling for related individual differences variables and regardless of whether sdo was measured or manipulated implications for how to maximize the likelihood that people will perceive fair trade products as fair are discussed

focus on fairtrade propositions for integrating fairtrade and supply chain management research driven by increased consumer interest and stakeholder pressure the number of fairtrade ft products has been steadily increasing the mainstreaming of ft means that the products are now facing stiff competition within the generic product categories in which they operate while consumers may pressure organizations for ethical conduct they are less willing to pay premium prices for fairly traded products for ft to continue to grow more efficient operating models are required to offset the premium prices paid to producers to ensure competitiveness in the market one such improvement approach may be the management of ft supply chains to investigate the feasibility of this approach this article systematically combines literature on ft with key supply chain management scm constructs and theories we discuss existing scm paradigms in the context of ft and demonstrate aspects where the efficiency of ft chains needs to be improved to ensure their viability we present propositions that demonstrate the key limitations of the ft model from the point of view of scm theory and practice and suggest the potential changes needed in the management of ft supply chains the article provides a timely first attempt to systematically combine ft with scm constructs thus establishing a basis for the further development of ft chains and for the improvement of the operating efficiency within them

a general equilibrium analysis of climate change impacts on tourism this paper studies the economic implications of climate change induced variations in tourism demand using a world cge model the model is first re calibrated at some future years obtaining hypothetical benchmark equilibria which are subsequently perturbed by shocks simulating the effects of climate change we portray the impact of climate change on tourism by means of two sets of shocks occurring simultaneously the first set of shocks translate predicted variations in tourist flows into changes of consumption preferences for domestically produced goods the second set reallocate income across world regions simulating the effect of higher or lower tourists expenditure our analysis highlights that variations in tourist flows will affect regional economies in a way that is directly related to the sign and magnitude of flow variations at a global scale climate change will ultimately lead to a welfare loss unevenly spread across regions 2005 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

criteria for responsible business practice in smes an exploratory case of u k fair trade organisations this paper develops a set of 16 criteria divided into four groupings for responsible business practice rbp in small and medium sized enterprises smes drawn from the existing sme rbp literature the current lack of a general set of criteria against which such activity can be judged is noted and this deficit is redressed in order to make an initial assessment in support of the criteria so derived an exploratory feasibility study of rbp in u k fair trade organisations was conducted the findings from this study show that most but not all of the rbp criteria seem to be applicable to u k fair trade organisations but it is recommended that the complete set of criteria continues to be used in further research until such time as there is a general consensus as to which criteria are appropriate implications for rbp in small businesses in general and for fair trade organisations in particular are drawn out and suggestions for further research are identified

fair trade in france from individual innovators to contemporary networks fair trade aims at humanising the capitalist economy by serving the community instead of simply striving for financial profit the current fair trade sector is an excellent example of an innovation where networks based on ethical principles can help to effectively serve this market our analysis is based on 48 interviews amongst fair trade innovators in france and illustrates the advent of a new type of entrepreneur one that is grounded in the social and solidarity economy sse based on a service dominant logic these innovators aim to construct a new world centred on trade relationships by integrating the role of multiple player networks into the creation of value in the market

the fair trade movement parameters issues and future research although fair trade has been in existence for more than 40 years discussion in the business and business ethics literature of this unique trading and campaigning movement between southern producers and northern buyers and consumers has been limited this paper seeks to redress this deficit by providing a description of the characteristics of fair trade including definitional issues market size and segmentation and the key organizations it discusses fair trade from southern producer and northern trader and consumer perspectives and highlights the key issues that currently face the fair trade movement it then identifies an initial research agenda to be followed up in subsequent papers

trade policy reform and the competitive response in kwazulu natal province south africa like many other formerly protected economies the liberalization of the external trade regime has placed new competitive pressures on south african enterprises detailed research in over 130 enterprises in the kwazulu natal kzn province of south africa shows the extent to which firms have been able to respond to these new competitive pressures and particularly on their ability to hear and to meet more demanding customers requirements inevitably the response has been varied but there are reasons to be concerned that the pace of adjustment has been suboptimal this reflects imperfections in information markets the challenges poses by the need for new social relations in production and the limited implementation of new supply sided policies designed to compensate firms for the reduction in protective barriers

economy wide estimates of the implications of climate change human health we study the economic impacts of climate change induced change in human health viz cardiovascular and respiratory disorders diarrhoea malaria dengue fever and schistosomiasis changes in morbidity and mortality are interpreted as changes in labour productivity and demand for health care and used to shock the gtap e computable general equilibrium model calibrated for the year 2050 gdp welfare and investment fall rise in regions with net negative positive health impacts prices production and terms of trade show a mixed pattern direct cost estimates common in climate change impact studies underestimate the true welfare losses

the impact of climate change on the labor allocation empirical evidence from china abstract climate change may significantly affect the labor market by generating disproportionate damage to marginal returns to labor across sectors however this potentially important channel through which climate change may affect social welfare has not received the attention it deserves we provide the first estimate of the long term effects of climate change on the labor market based on the hedonic approach which accounts for individual long term adjustments to climate change using a panel of field survey data from 8076 working age residents in 279 rural communities in china we find that a 1 c increase from current mean temperature will reduce an average rural resident s time allocated to farm work by 7 0 increase the time allocated to off farm work by 7 8 and reduce the time allocated to leisure by 0 8 we also find differential responses to climate change across gender higher temperatures mainly shift males time from leisure to off farm work but mainly shift females time from farm work to off farm work

the latte revolution regulation markets and consumption in the global coffee chain abstract coffee is a truly global commodity and a major foreign exchange earner in many developing countries the global coffee chain has changed dramatically as a result of deregulation new consumption patterns and evolving corporate strategies from a balanced contest between producing and consuming countries within the politics of international coffee agreements power relations shifted to the advantage of transnational corporations a relatively stable institutional environment where proportions of generated income were fairly distributed between producing and consuming countries turned into one that is more informal unstable and unequal through the lenses of global commodity chain analysis this paper examines how these transformations affect developing countries and what policy instruments are available to address the emerging imbalances

governance of global value chains in response to food safety and certification standards the case of shrimp from vietnam summary we use global value chain gvc theory to understand governance of vietnam s shrimp farming industry we describe this gvc as buyer driven with important food safety standards imposed by governments of importing countries and new certification systems promoted by nongovernmental organizations ngos governance relations are clear between governments in importing countries and vietnam and between importers and ngos governance relations become more fragmented further down the chain where large numbers of small scale producers and traders operate this fragmentation may adversely affect access to the most lucrative markets and have the unanticipated effect of marginalizing small scale farmers and traders

ethics faith and profit exploring the motives of the u s fair trade social entrepreneurs although fair trade has grown exponentially in the u s in recent years we do not have a clear understanding of why small u s firms choose to participate in it to answer this question we use a qualitative case study approach and grounded theory analysis to explore the motivations of 35 small fair trade businesses we find that shared values ethical religious or business and the desire to help others altruism often triggered by a critical incident lead social entrepreneurs to found and sustain fair trade businesses the relationship between shared values and engagement in fair trade and the relationship between altruism and engagement in fair trade are strengthened by four motivating factors direct relationships with producers support for social causes the desire for the preservation of craftsmanship and the desire to share aesthetic products these links are strengthened by four facilitating factors which make fair trade engagement easier the acquisition of business knowledge family member involvement in the firm assistance from faith communities and assistance from the fair trade community additional analysis reveals three types of fair trade social entrepreneurs ethics first or ethical entrepreneurs primarily motivated by human rights and social justice concerns faith first or faithful fair traders motivated primarily by their religious faith and business first or benevolent businesspeople motivated by what they perceive to be an opportunity to build a successful business while simultaneously doing good and helping others

assessing the impact of fair trade coffee towards an integrative framework this article presents an impact assessment framework that allows for the evaluation of positive and negative local level impacts that have resulted from responsible trade interventions such as fair trade and ethical trade the framework investigates impact relating to 1 livelihood impacts on primary stakeholders 2 socio economic impacts on communities 3 organizational impacts 4 environmental impacts 5 policies and institutional impacts and 6 future prospects it identifies relevant local level stakeholders and facilitates the analysis of conflicting interests the framework was developed in the context of and is applied in this article to the fair trade coffee industry in northern nicaragua it was designed however so that it can be applied across commodity sectors and responsible trade initiatives it is able to do this by accommodating for differences in the social environmental political and institutional contexts of different areas and by taking into account the distinct nature of an initiative s overall objectives different levels of intervention and the full range of stakeholders involved

economic impacts of el nino southern oscillation evidence from the colombian coffee market el nino southern oscillation enso is a naturally occurring phenomenon that affects weather around the world past enso episodes have had severe impacts on the economy of colombia we study the influence of enso on colombian coffee production exports and price our structural econometric specification is consistent with an economic model of the market for colombian coffee which in the short run is characterized by a downward sloping demand curve and by a vertical supply curve we show that el nino i e positive shocks to enso is beneficial for colombian production and exports and decreases the real price of colombian coffee on the contrary la nina i e negative shocks to enso depresses colombian coffee production and exports and increases price however the overall impact of enso shocks is small both in the short run and in the long run shocks to international demand for colombian coffee are more relevant than supply side shocks in colombia in explaining the dynamics of the price of colombian coffee our results suggest that a given coffee price shock can have beneficial detrimental or negligible effects on the colombian economy depending on its underlying cause as a consequence policy responses to coffee price shocks should be designed by looking at the causes of the shocks

ethical value added fair trade and the case of cafe femenino this article engages various critiques of fair trade from its participation in commodification to providing a cover for fair washing corporations and argues that fair trade has the potential to answer the challenges contained within them if and when it initiates an ongoing process of developing the ethical valued added content of the label this argument is made in a number of ways first by distinguishing between economic and human development impacts and ethics this article argues that these impacts are necessary but not sufficient conditions for ethical trade second it engages the question of the possibility of ethical practice in economics generally developing the idea that when economics is concerned with securing the material basis of a broad range of life capacities it becomes ethical third fair trade practice itself is examined from this standpoint and is conceived of as both comprising a promising ethical value added practice as well as posing a problem in its current formulation that the framework of ethical value added can help understand and resolve finally an examination of these theoretical ideas in practice is undertaken through a case study of cafe femenino a fair trade coffee produced in peru in conclusion it is argued that for fair trade to build upon its economic and human impacts and therefore remain a meaningful ethical and economic alternative to corporate capitalism and globalization it must distinguish itself clearly in ethics from those market relations it wishes explicitly or implicitly to challenge

fair trade managerial practices strategy organisation and engagement the number of distributors selling fair trade products is constantly increasing what are their motivations to distribute fair trade products how do they organise this distribution do they apply and communicate the fair trade values this research based on five case studies in switzerland aims at understanding and structuring the strategies and the managerial practices related to fair trade product distribution as well as analysing if they denote an engagement with fair trade principles the results show a high heterogeneity of strategies and engagement in general strategies implemented by mainstream actors contribute to increase fair trade global sales but do not convey the transformative message of fair trade through their engagement the latter is rather communicated through alternative channels problems and potential solutions to this issue are discussed

externalities in international trade the case for differential tariffs abstract this paper examines the economic justification for the use of differential tariffs to control for positive and negative externalities embodied in traded products in particular economic efficiency requires that taxes and subsidies should be applied to internalize external costs or benefits it is argued that products such as timber minerals and agricultural products that produce large negative environmental externalities should be differentially tariffed to either provide an incentive to cease destructive practices or provide funding for amelioration examples from the mining and agricultural sectors are used to demonstrate the magnitude of tariffs required to offset the estimated environmental damage products with embedded cultural content are used as examples of exports that may possess positive externalities and should be subject to a subsidy

deconstructing the relationship between corporate social and financial performance for four decades research on the role and responsibilities of business in society has centered on the business case for corporate social responsibility csr and an increasing number of studies on the corporate social performance csp corporate financial performance cfp link emerged leading to controversial results heeding the call for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms linking certain csr efforts to certain performance outcomes this study provides a stakeholder based organizing framework rooted in an extensive review of existing literature on the link between csp and cfp in so doing we aim at guiding research and practice toward less simplistic understandings of the csp cfp connection thus advancing the debate over the consequences of voluntary integrating csr into business operations and into relationships with stakeholders by disentangling specific drivers and outcomes of the csp cfp link we underline the importance of setting clear boundaries and specifying levels of analysis to generate comparable results

the impact of the international coffee agreement on producing countries the main objective of this article is to analyze the impact of the international coffee agreement s export system on the world coffee market focusing on increases in real export revenues transfer benefits and reductions in income variability risk benefits in each exporting country over the recent period of operation of the international coffee agreement s export quota system the authors find that the quota system had a stabilizing effect on world coffee prices the quotas reduced real export revenues for most small exporting countries but large producers gained most small countries gained however in terms of risk reduction if a brief suspension of the quota occurs from time to time caused for example by adverse weather which results in a shortfall in world supply the quota system works like a buffer stock scheme on average producing countries as a whole lose transfer benefits but gain risk benefits

why do global long term scenarios for agriculture differ an overview of the agmip global economic model intercomparison recent studies assessing plausible futures for agricultural markets and global food security have had contradictory outcomes to advance our understanding of the sources of the differences 10 global economic models that produce long term scenarios were asked to compare a reference scenario with alternate socioeconomic climate change and bioenergy scenarios using a common set of key drivers several key conclusions emerge from this exercise first for a comparison of scenario results to be meaningful a careful analysis of the interpretation of the relevant model variables is essential for instance the use of real world commodity prices differs widely across models and comparing the prices without accounting for their different meanings can lead to misleading results second results suggest that once some key assumptions are harmonized the variability in general trends across models declines but remains important for example given the common assumptions of the reference scenario models show average annual rates of changes of real global producer prices for agricultural products on average ranging between 0 4 and 0 7 between the 2005 base year and 2050 this compares to an average decline of real agricultural prices of 4 p a between the 1960s and the 2000s several other common trends are shown for example relating to key global growth areas for agricultural production and consumption third differences in basic model parameters such as income and price elasticities sometimes hidden in the way market behavior is modeled result in significant differences in the details fourth the analysis shows that agro economic modelers aiming to inform the agricultural and development policy debate require better data and analysis on both economic behavior and biophysical drivers more interdisciplinary modeling efforts are required to cross fertilize analyses at different scales

the missing link between corporate social responsibility and consumer trust the case of fair trade products this paper investigates the link between the consumer perception that a company is socially oriented and the consumer intention to buy products marketed by that company we suggest that this link exists when at least two conditions prevail 1 the products sold by that company comply with ethical and social requirements 2 the company has an acknowledged commitment to protect consumer rights and interests to test these hypotheses we conducted a survey among the clients of retail chains offering fair trade products the results show that socially oriented companies can successfully leverage their reputation to market products with high symbolic values

piero sraffa and the true object of economics the role of the unpublished manuscripts this special issue is concerned with the work of piero sraffa and with recent developments in its interpretation occasioned by the opening of the sraffa archives in late 1993 1 it brings together some of the contributions to a workshop on this theme that was sponsored by the cambridge journal of economics and held in july 2010 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of piero sraffa s major work production of commodities by means of commodities pcmc the original workshop on new perspectives on the work of piero sraffa was aimed at sraffa scholars who had taken the opportunity to engage with materials in the sraffa archives and who were interested in exploring their potential for revisiting and placing pcmc in the wider context of ongoing debates on economic philosophy economic theory and economic policy as is usually the case not all presentations made at the workshop were advanced for consideration in this special issue nor could all invitees attend heinz kurz as chief editor of the sraffa archives agreed to present his view on the relevance of the sraffa archives to research on sraffa and to comment on contributions at the workshop as well as on their final versions submitted for publication in this special issue kurz s contribution to this special issue was thus written in the short time available between the receipt of final versions and publication deadlines we are indebted to him for his cooperation in the preparation of this special issue we are especially grateful for his patience in the time taken to bring this project to publication this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

economics and politics of food standards trade and development standards have played an important role in food trade for a very long time their rapid growth in recent years has triggered vigorous debates on their impacts on international trade and development with many arguing that standards are non tariff barriers to trade and that standards are marginalizing the poor i present conceptual frameworks and review empirical evidence on the equity and efficiency effects and the political economy of standards models which incorporate essential aspects of standards yield complex theoretical results and nuanced conclusions careful empirical analyses support such nuanced arguments and find complex effects for trade standards can create welfare gains but also involve rent redistribution which induces lobbying by interest groups to set the standards at their preferred level this makes it difficult to distinguish socially desirable standards from those resulting from political rent seeking for development it is crucial to explicitly account for a the endogeneity of the institutional organization of value chains and b both smallholder contracting and employment creation on large scale farms when considering the impact of standards on development and poverty

traditional vs modern production systems price and nonmarket considerations of cacao producers in northern ecuador many factors besides profit maximization such as nonmarket ecological and social benefits influence smallholder households to adopt a specific agricultural production system or sell in a particular market thus different analytical techniques are needed that take into consideration more than monetary income to fully capture these additional benefits to better understand the production decisions of smallholder farmers we build on previous work on the household model and shadow wage estimation to develop a shadow wage for ecuadorian cacao producers that includes these nonmarket benefits we found that the shadow wage correctly indicated that on average these households would prefer to use an agroforestry production system instead of the more profitable modern system because of the nonmarket benefits received from the former system

ngo performance what breeds success new evidence from south asia abstract what is the best way for nongovernment organisations ngos to make a lasting impact on poverty this paper summarizes the findings of recent research into the impact sustainability and cost effectiveness of two ngos in india and two projects implemented by save the children fund uk in bangladesh the factors determining performance are explored through the interaction of organizational decisions with the external context although these interactions are complex and dynamic some clear conclusions emerge making a difference to livelihoods and capacities among poor people depends on ngo successes in fostering autonomous grassroots institutions and linking them with markets and political structures at higher levels these conclusions question the current predilection among donor agencies to fund large scale ngo service delivery

fair trade three key challenges for reaching the mainstream after nearly 20 years of work by activists fair trade a movement establishing alternative trading organizations to ensure minimal returns safe working conditions and environmentally sustainable production is now gaining steam with increasing awareness and availability across a variety of products however this article addresses several major remaining challenges a a lack of agreement about what fair trade really means and how it should be certified b uneven awareness and availability across different areas with marked differences between some parts of europe and north america that reflect more fundamental debates about distribution c larger questions about the extent of the potential contribution of fair trade to development under the current system including limitations on the number and types of workers affected and the fair trade focus on commodity goods

governance and trade in fresh vegetables the impact of uk supermarkets on the african horticulture industry production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries in sub saharan africa over the last decade this trade brings producers and exporters based in africa together with importers and retailers in europe large retailers in europe play a decisive role in structuring the production and processing of fresh vegetables exported from africa the requirements they specify for cost quality delivery product variety innovation food safety and quality systems help top determine what types of producers and processors are able to gain access to the fresh vegetables chain and the activities they must carry out the control over the fresh vegetables trade exercised by uk supermarkets has clear consequences for inclusion and exclusion of producers and exporters of differing types and for the long term prospects for the fresh vegetables industry in the two major exporting countries studied kenya and zimbabwe

the sectoral and regional economic consequences of outdoor air pollution to 2060 abstract this paper provides an assessment of the costs of inaction of outdoor air pollution in the coming decades focusing on the market impacts relative to additional health expenditures changes in labour productivity and crop yield losses the results show that the global economic costs of outdoor air pollution gradually increase to 1 of global gdp by 2060 with highest gdp losses in china the caspian region and eastern europe these economic consequences stem from a combination of exposure to high concentrations aging population and relatively high pollution related health expenditures that crowd out other consumption and savings while the direct costs of these market impacts grow more or less at the same pace as total economic activity the indirect economic costs induced by these impacts become increasingly significant over time numerical results are more sensitive to the specification of the feedbacks to the economic model than to the parameter values used in calibrating the impacts the most optimistic specifications lead to significantly lower costs of air pollution but qualitative conclusions on the sign of effects and ordering of regional consequences are robust non market damages especially the welfare losses from premature deaths are potentially an order of magnitude larger than the market damages that this paper focuses on but those do not directly affect the economy these findings on the costs of inaction of outdoor air pollution underline the need for policy action that would reduce the health and environmental impacts as well as lead to economic benefits

mainstreaming and its discontents fair trade socially responsible investing and industry trajectories over time according to popular and academic accounts alternative trade initiatives such as fair trade organics forest certification and socially responsible investing sri almost invariably lose their oppositional stance and go mainstream that is they lose their alternative usually peripheral and often contrarian character in this paper i argue that this is not always the case and that the path to going mainstream is not always an unproblematic one i observe that while scholars have documented various aspects of specific alternative trade initiatives little comparative work has been done to theorize their different trajectories to advance the scholarship i compare two alternative trade movements fair trade and sri and develop three hypotheses the relation motivations hypothesis the material interests hypothesis and the organization of credibility hypothesis that explain why going mainstream has been so hotly contested in the fair trade movement but not the sri movement i articulate these hypotheses and evaluate their merits

temperature and income reconciling new cross sectional and panel estimates this paper presents novel evidence and analysis of the relationship between temperature and income first using sub national data from 12 countries in the americas we provide new evidence that the negative cross country relationship between temperature and income also exists within countries and even within states second we provide a theoretical framework for reconciling the substantial negative association between temperature and income in the cross section with the even stronger short run effects of temperature estimated by panel models the theoretical framework suggests that half of the negative short term effects of temperature may be offset in the long run through adaptation this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

differences in income elasticities and trends in real exchange rates abstract one might expect that differences in income elasticities in trade and or differences in growth rates among countries would give rise to strong secular trends in real exchange rates for example fast growing countries might need steady depreciation to get the world to accept their growing exports in fact however income elasticities are systematically related to growth rates by the 45 degree rule under which fast growing countries appear to face high income elasticities of demand for their exports while having low income elasticities of import demand the net effect of this relationship between elasticities and growth rates is that secular trends in real exchange rates are much smaller than one might otherwise have expected relative ppp holds fairly well this paper documents the existence of a 45 degree rule and suggests an explanation in terms of increasing returns and product differentiation

international commodity agreements an obituary notice abstract it is widely believed that international commodity agreements have lapsed because they have failed the reality is more complex the tin agreement did collapse but for sugar and cocoa adverse market conditions and lack of general support made stabilization impractical control of the coffee market ceased largely because of disagreements both between and within the producing countries on the division of the benefits resulting from higher prices overall commodity control fits uneasily in an increasingly globalized and competitive world and this perception has resulted in a diminished willingness to resolve the practical difficulties of price stabilization

a survey of the economics of fair trade fair trade has spread in developing countries as an initiative aimed at lifting poor smallholder farmers out of poverty by providing them with premium prices availability of credit and improved community development and social goods fair trade is also viewed as a niche market for high value products in a context of globalization and trade liberalization policies that affect smallholder farmers in developing countries the question of whether fair trade affects the welfare of rural farmers however is particularly contentious this paper provides a review of the fair trade literature both theoretical and empirical with a specific focus on the analysis of small scale producer s welfare in developing countries our review shows that while most empirical papers have focused on the impacts of fair trade on prices and income our review highlights the importance of limited market access and changes in productivity likewise little is known about the impacts of fair trade on labor markets and human capital investments persistent methodological challenges make it challenging however to assess the causal impact of this certification and labelling initiative

cooperation and competition in the context of organic and mechanic worldviews a theoretical and case based discussion in this study we argue that there is an interconnection between the mechanistic worldview and competition and the organic worldview and cooperation to illustrate our main thesis we introduce two cases first max havelaar a paradigmatic case of how business might function in an economy based upon solidarity and sustainability second tine a norwegian grocery corporation engaged in collusion in order to force a small competitor out of the market on the one hand in order to encourage market behaviour that integrates economic societal and environmental values we find that transparent cooperation within a context of an organic worldview takes care of important intrinsic as well as instrumental values on the other hand we find evidence for asserting that cooperation based upon a mechanistic worldview typically leads to group egotistical consequences undermining the long term common good

what do corporations have to do with fair trade positive and normative analysis from a value chain perspective there has been tremendous growth in the sales of certified fair trade products since the introduction of the first of these goods in the netherlands in 1988 many would argue that this rapid growth has been due in large part to the increasing involvement of corporations still participation by corporations in fair trade has not been welcomed by all the basic point of contention is that while corporate participation has the potential to rapidly extend the market for fair trade goods it threatens key aspects of what many see as the original vision of fair trade most notably a primary concern for the plight of small producers and the goal of developing an alternative approach to trade and development and may even be undermining its long term survival the primary purpose of this article is to explore the normative issues involved in corporate participation in fair trade in order to do that however it first provides a positive analysis of how corporations are actually involved in fair trade in order to achieve both of these ends the article draws upon global value chain analysis

coffee market liberalisation and the implications for producers in brazil guatemala and india the standard approach to modelling the relationship between world and producer prices of coffee does not incorporate the effects of changing government policies and market structures these changes have led to large structural breaks in the relationship between the prices implying the standard estimates are biased we model coffee prices in brazil guatemala and india allowing for the structural breaks and show that the liberalisation of coffee markets has benefited producers substantially both in terms of a higher share of the world price of coffee and higher real prices this suggests that calls to re regulate coffee markets may be misplaced

wages economic development and the customary standard of life this paper examines empirically the evolution of the customary standard of life and how this relates to real wages and economic development its starting point is sraffa s reintroduction of the classical notion of wages as the cost of reproducing labour so that they are necessarily a charge on production however when considering a production system generating a surplus sraffa offered no explanation of how the surplus might be realised and distributed rather he concentrated on the choice of technique as the profit share varied from 0 to 1 his approach was one of taking a snapshot of a productive system at a point in time in contrast this paper explores the trend in wages in the uk over the past 150 years and the evolving level and composition of what became the social necessities of worker consumption i e the customary standard of life in this process four dynamically interacting processes can be identified i a progressive increase in the productive potential of the system ii the diffusion of a greater quantity and varieties of consumer goods the growth of property ownership by consumers and their use of credit in a cumulative improvement in their customary standard of life iii the consolidation of the customary standard of life into real wages by collective bargaining and iv diffusion of improved living standards by an extension of collective bargaining coverage to include groups previously excluded and the growth of the welfare state in which the failure to achieve the customary standard of life defines poverty and triggers policy designed to alleviate it the central role played by the customary standard of life in driving real wages means that the inputs of labour power into commodity production can be represented by the commodity composition of the customary standard of life in sraffa style analyses in this the successive cross sections in the historical flow of economic development showing the commodity flows into and out of production will be ever changing like the still frames in a moving picture show moreover such a historical approach rules out the possibility that at any time changes in the rate of profit will precipitate the switching of methods of production past choices of techniques are historically embedded in the capital stock the composition of which is modified by new investment and the scrapping of old as it wears out becomes technically outmoded and or demand for its products declines nevertheless changes in the distribution of income have consequences for the future path of economic and social development and what this might be is arguably the most useful area for economic and social research copyright oxford university press

free competition without sustainable development tanzanian cotton sector liberalisation 1994 95 to 1997 98 this article summarises the results of fieldwork carried out in 1997 8 season on post liberalisation changes in the tanzanian cotton sector developments in primary marketing ginning and the export trade are reviewed on the basis of survey material market entry by private companies has been high leading to considerable competition and slight increases in producers share of the world price but real producer price and cultivation increases have not been sustained following changes in the input supply system insecticide use has fallen sharply along with the quality and underlying international price of the cotton crop tanzania s place in the world market has been re defined as a producer for a specific time based market window this places a question mark over the sustainability of the sector s future and by inference over policy reforms whose main emphasis is to increase competition

the impact of coffee certification on small scale producers livelihoods a case study from the jimma zone ethiopia what is the impact of product certification on small scale farmers livelihoods to what extent does the participation of ethiopian small scale coffee farmers in certified local cooperative structures improve their socioeconomic situation to answer these questions this article employs household data of 249 coffee farmers from six different cooperatives collected in the jimma zone of southwestern ethiopia in 2009 findings show that the certification of coffee cooperatives has in total a low impact on small scale coffee producers livelihoods mainly due to 1 low productivity 2 insignificant price premium and 3 poor access to credit and information from the cooperative differences in production and organizational capacities between the local cooperatives are mirrored in the extent of the certification benefits for the smallholders good cooperatives have reaped the benefits of certification whereas bad ones did not fare well in this regard the cooperative effect overlies the certification effect

fighting the tide alternative trade organizations in the era of global free trade abstract this paper explores the proliferation of fair trade organizations their products services and client groups in order to establish the impact of this movement although small in volume alternative trade represents a unique response to the relentless pursuit of free trade through the gatt wto process the economic underpinnings of both fair trade and subsidy programs in general such as the eu s stabilization of exchange system are evaluated ultimately alternative trade can provide significant assistance to targeted groups within developing countries including gains in production and export proficiency on the negative side fair trade is likely to prolong the dependence of developing countries on products with poor future prospects

disentangling the effects of fair trade on the quality of malian cotton the increasing importance of premium segments and private labels raise skepticism about the ability of fair trade to help smallholders compete in high value added markets using panel data collected in mali this paper contributes to the debate by estimating the impact of fairtrade certification on the quality of malian cotton controlling for the nonrandom certification of producers results show a significant impact on the quality of cotton produced by both certified and geographically close noncertified growers via spillover effects the analysis suggests that contract farming enforced by third parties and demonstration effects foster the adoption of innovative agricultural practices

mainstreaming fair trade coffee from partnership to traceability summary this article analyzes the recent growth of fair trade and the mainstreaming of this previously alternative arena focusing on coffee i identify a continuum of buyers ranging from mission driven enterprises that uphold alternative ideas and practices based on social ecological and place based commitments to quality driven firms that selectively foster fair trade conventions to ensure reliable supplies of excellent coffee to market driven corporations that largely pursue commercial industrial conventions rooted in price competition and product regulation using a commodity network approach my analysis illuminates the impacts of diverse buyer relations on producer groups and how relations are in some cases shifting from partnership to traceability

the influence of personal values on fair trade consumption abstract few studies investigate the motives underlying the consumption of fair trade ft products although the movement has grown substantially in the last decade this study examines the influence of personal values on ft consumption using data collected from 268 canadian consumers using an adapted version of the rockeach list of values three classes of values are identified self directed equality and social justice and power and social status using structural equation modeling the study shows a positive and significant effect of equality and social justice values on ft consumption a negative and significant effect of power and social status values on ft consumption and no significant effect of self directed values on ft consumption

water competition through the water energy nexus assessing the economic impacts of climate change in a mediterranean context abstract the impacts of climate change on water resources availability are expected to be adverse especially in drier climate regions such as the mediterranean increased water scarcity will exacerbate competition for water resources not only between sectors but also between countries sharing transboundary river basins due to the mutual dependence of the energy sector on water resources and of the water services provision sector on energy inputs the water energy nexus is acknowledged as a major challenge for the near future with hydropower representing one of the most direct links in this nexus the aim of this paper is to assess the economy wide impacts of the concurrent effects of climate change driven impacts on water availability and the sectoral and regional competition for scarcer water resources in order to accomplish that goal an integrated modelling approach is developed where a computable general equilibrium model including raw water as a production factor is linked to times pt a bottom up model of the energy sector a case study is provided for the mediterranean country of portugal results for 2050 show that macroeconomic impacts are significant and encompass important inter sectoral differences that in turn depend on the degree of competition between sectors impacts are stronger when water consumption by spanish sectors is considered as this intensifies water scarcity in portugal thus the paper allows to gain insight in the broader water energy economy nexus and the additional costs that the dependence on water resources availability in transboundary river basins represents to an economy both aspects being of utmost importance for climate adaptation and energy policy making

responding to the coffee crisis what can we learn from price dynamics an econometric model of coffee price dynamics is specified and estimated to capture the evolution of coffee prices at the farm wholesale and retail levels it investigates the historical influence of the international coffee agreement ica through its effects on yield and planting decisions in the short run the ica caused brazilian farm prices to become disconnected from international prices the ica helped coffee producers to better incorporate current world price information into planting decisions this created a price cycle that did not exist in non ica periods the low coffee prices experienced since the disintegration of the ica are consistent with low supply response to price information asymmetric price transmission at the retail level helped roasters and retailers benefit from upstream price interventions our results urge caution when considering future coffee price interventions

piero sraffa and the future of economics how did piero sraffa look at the future of economic theory first when he arrived in england in the mid 1920s and then after the publication of his extraordinarily compact little book production of commodities by means of commodities 1960 the author sifts through sraffa s published works and abundant unpublished papers his acquaintances and personal contacts and vicissitudes the conclusions he arrives at remain problematical but do not refrain him from clearly expressing his specific quite definite views copyright oxford university press

fair trade in italy too much movement in the shop we analyse the development of fair trade in italy by examining its principles structure performance dilemmas and potential solutions and identifying its main distinctive features these lead us to develop a specifically italian model fair trade in italy is younger than its more established north european counterparts and more focussed on broad social justice issues in addition to its concern to include marginalized producers this normative difference has given rise to a social economy dominated value chain with a partial corporate involvement uniquely in the retail sphere although it has generated much lower per capita consumption of fair trade products at the same time we also observe a relatively higher specialization in handicraft products and educational activities as well as a strong capacity to attract voluntary labour and create social capital we identify clear trade offs between social goals and the economic performance of the italian model reduced economies of scale a closer focus on non economic value creating social activities and greater consideration of values such as consumption sobriety and environmental concerns which may conflict with economic performance we propose solutions which may resolve these dilemmas without abandoning the initial ambition not only to achieve the promotion of market access for marginalized producers in the south but also to pursue a broader concept of well being in the north and the south

sustaining inter organizational relationships across institutional logics and power asymmetries the case of fair trade this paper explores an empirical puzzle namely how inter organizational relationships can be sustained between organizations that draw upon distinctive and potentially conflicting institutional logics under conditions of power asymmetry this research analyses cases of these relationships and suggests some key conditions underlying them examining relationships between fair trade organizations and corporate retailers a series of contingent factors behind the dynamic persistence of such relationships are proposed namely the presence of pre existing hybrid logics the use of boundary spanning discourses joint tolerance of conflict and co creation of common rules these four elements are supported by a fifth mediating factor i e the presence and use of a fair trade certification system in the collaboration the latter appears as a central vehicle facilitating cross logic relationships it can be seen as a boundary object embodying a series of narratives and discourses that are open to multiple interpretations corresponding to the dominant institutional logics of each partner organization

the political economy of production of commodities by means of commodities a comment on pasinetti and sraffa luigi pasinetti s contribution in this special issue highlights the complexity and richness of sraffa s sources and points to the diversity of the streams of thought that may be detected behind sraffa s original research programme in particular pasinetti calls attention to the heuristic value of sraffa s unpublished manuscripts in assessing the constructive effort of production of commodities by means of commodities pcc this paper moves further along the above line of investigation and explores the smithian strand of pcc in particular the paper highlights that the duality between horizontal and vertical prices explored by both sraffa and pasinetti points to the existence of different complementary causal linkages in classical political economy vertical integration makes it possible to resolve prices into a sum of weighted quantities of labour and calls attention to the system of weights needed for this operation alternative weighting systems may be associated with alternative institutional arrangements for example a traditional wage profit economy would attach increasingly higher weights to increasingly remote quantities of labour but the analytics of vertical integration also raises the institutional possibility of increasingly lower weights as increasingly remote labour quantities are considered the paper argues that by assessing together the horizontal ricardian and vertical smithian strands of pcc it is possible to grasp more fully the theoretical potential of this work in particular it becomes possible to distinguish between the identification of general causal principles and the instantiation of those principles in specific historical contexts copyright oxford university press

are fair trade goods credence goods a new proposal with french illustrations in the literature fair trade ft goods are usually associated with other products differentiated by process attributes such as organic food genetically modified gm food or child labour free clothing all of these products are regarded as credence goods this classification refers to the simplified definition of credence goods which describes product attributes which consumers cannot evaluate even after having consumed the good focusing on the characteristics of ft goods this article proposes a reassessment of the link between ft goods and credence properties as defined by darby and karni we first demonstrate that 1 the usual classification masks important particularities of ft goods compared to other goods with process attributes and 2 the full definition of credence goods may even provide a better description of the quality of ft goods however and this is our second theoretical contribution the lack of consensus among experts concerning ft standards and their level of efficiency encourage us to consider ft goods as indeterminate goods as defined by lupton this result leads us to suggest a new typology of product attributes summarized in an innovative diagram it sheds light on how competition between the different ft approaches works and why the ft market is still confined to a niche if not threatened with collapse we mainly illustrate our theoretical analysis with observations relating to the french ft market and institutions

causality and interdependence in pasinetti s works and in the modern classical approach the formal representation of economic theories normally takes the form of a model that is a system of equations which connect the endogenous variables with the values of the parameters which are taken as given sometimes it is possible to identify one or more equations which are able to determine a subset of endogenous variables priorly and independently of the other equations and of the value taken by the remaining variables of the system the first group of equations and variables are thus said to determine causally the remaining variables in pasinetti s works this notion of causality has often been emphasized as a formal property having the burden to convey some deep economic meaning in this work we will go through those pasinetti s works where this notion of causality plays a central role with the purpose to contextualize it within the econometric debate of the sixties to enucleate its economic meaning and to show its connections with other fields of the modern classical approach

fairtrade towns as unconventional networks of ethical activism the growing availability and consumption of fairtrade products is recognised as one of the most widespread ethically inspired market developments and as an example of activist driven change within the wider marketing system the fairtrade towns movement now operating in over 1700 towns and cities globally represents a comparatively recent extension of fairtrade marketing driven by local activists seeking to promote positive change in production and consumption systems this paper briefly explores the conventional framing of the role that ethically related activism plays in the operation of markets and in influencing market participants it then presents key insights gathered from a grounded theory exploration of fairtrade towns as activist driven marketing systems revealing the atypical nature of the activism involved the findings demonstrate how local activists leverage their social networks to exert pressure and generate support to promote ethical consumption the study suggests that fairtrade towns offer a new role for activists as fairtrade itself becomes more mainstream and considers the role they are fulfilling as informal local marketers the marketing dynamics revealed represent a complex and distinctive form of relational activism that seeks to build fairtrade markets and highlight their positive benefits with potential lessons for other local ethical market building efforts in future

mapping research topics and theories in private regulation for sustainability in global value chains the globalization of production and trade has contributed to the rise in complex global value chains where the reach of state regulation is limited as an alternative private regulation developed and administered by companies industry associations and nongovernmental organizations has emerged to safeguard economic environmental and social sustainability in producer countries and along the value chain the academic literature on private regulation in global value chains has grown over the last decade but currently few major reviews of the research have been undertaken this paper examines peer reviewed research in the relevant disciplines published in academic journals up to december 2011 our goal is to identify and classify the topics and theories in the global value chain literature we conclude that the number of articles explicitly examining private regulation in a global value chain context is relatively small when considering the importance and growth of these chains in the world s economy we also conclude that agriculture forestry and apparel manufacturing are the most often studied economic sectors in contrast other sectors such as the information communication and technology with their complex global value chains and often problematic environmental and social conditions are understudied

productive efficiency of specialty and conventional coffee farmers in costa rica accounting for technological heterogeneity and self selection a steep decline in coffee prices at the producer level led to considerable pressure for farmers in costa rica and producer countries all over the world one possible reaction was moving to specialty markets where price pressure was perceived to be lower we use original survey data from 2002 2003 and 2003 2004 to analyze the factors influencing participation in specialty markets and to estimate separate production functions for specialty and conventional coffee farmers allowing for farm specific inefficiencies applying a sample selection framework we find significant selection bias in the sub sample of specialty farmers and evidence for the overestimation of efficiency if this bias is not adequately controlled for among the most important factors that influence farm specific efficiency levels in the two sub samples are the availability of additional income activities experience in coffee cultivation and membership in cooperatives based on the results we derive policy recommendations to improve farmers production performance and ability to cope with the effects of the coffee crisis these policy measures include the provision of extension services with respect to farm management skills the creation of income opportunities in rural areas and the support of farmer owned cooperatives

globalization and upgrading what can and cannot be learnt from international trade statistics in the wood furniture sector the measurement of innovation is a complex and ambiguous challenge two broad families of measures have been used those focusing on inputs and those focusing on outputs each has its strengths and weaknesses but neither is able to capture the growing importance of product innovation adequately in this paper we attempt to throw more light on the measurement of product innovation through the complementary use of data on unit price and market share the analysis is distinctive through its exclusive use of trade data these measures are applied to the global furniture industry through an analysis of imports into the eu between 1989 and 2001

can africa industrialize by processing primary commodities the case of mozambican cashew nuts abstract industrialization strategies based on vertical diversification into processing of primary commodities have long been appealing to low income countries the performance of such strategies is mixed an aggregate level literature is divided on the advisability of low income countries processing commodities for export especially for countries relatively poor in human capital while this general literature usefully illuminates the policy debate over processing cashew nuts in mozambique commodity and country specific factors reveal the weaknesses of conducting debate at too aggregated a level it may be that the most significant constraints on processing industrialization are political rather than purely technical or economic

the sectoral and regional economic consequences of climate change to 2060 this paper presents a new detailed global quantitative assessment of the economic consequences of climate change i e climate damages to 2060 the analysis is based on an assessment of a wide range of impacts changes in crop yields loss of land and capital due to sea level rise changes in fisheries catches capital damages from hurricanes labour productivity changes and changes in health care expenditures from diseases and heat stress changes in tourism flows and changes in energy demand for cooling and heating a multi region multi sector dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used to link different impacts until 2060 directly to specific drivers of economic growth including labour productivity capital stocks and land supply as well as assess the indirect effects these impacts have on the rest of the economy and on the economies of other countries it uses a novel production function approach to identify which aspects of economic activity are directly affected by climate change the model results show that damages are projected to rise twice as fast as global economic activity global annual gross domestic product losses are projected to be 1 0 3 3 by 2060 of the impacts that are modelled impacts on labour productivity and agriculture are projected to have the largest negative economic consequences damages from sea level rise grow most rapidly after the middle of the century damages to energy and tourism are very small from a global perspective as benefits in some regions balance damages in others climate induced damages from hurricanes may have significant effects on local communities but the macroeconomic consequences are projected to be very small net economic consequences are projected to be especially large in africa and asia where the regional economies are vulnerable to a range of different climate impacts for some countries in higher latitudes economic benefits can arise from gains in tourism energy and health the global assessment also shows that countries that are relatively less affected by climate change may reap trade gains

trade matters in the fight against poverty narratives perceptions and lack of evidence in the case of fish trade in africa two opposing views exist in the literature on the potential role that international fish trade plays in economic development while some claim that fish trade has a pro poor effect others denounce the negative effect of fish export on local populations food security and doubt its contributions to the macro economy in this paper we explore this debate in sub saharan africa our analysis did not find any evidence of direct negative impact of fish trade on food security neither did it find evidence that international fish trade generates positive pro poor outcomes this paper discusses the possible reasons for this apparent lack of development impact and highlights the unsupported assumptions underlying the current discourse about international fish trade we suggest that given lack of evidence for the development benefits of fish trade between africa and developed countries fisheries policy could consider support for regional africa to africa trade that meets the growing african demand for lower value fish means of overcoming barriers to intra african trade in fish are discussed

the contribution of environmental and social standards towards ensuring legitimacy in supply chain governance increasingly companies implement social and environmental standards as instruments towards corporate social responsibility csr in supply chains this is based on the assumption that such standards increase legitimacy among stakeholders yet a wide variety of standards with different requirement levels exist and companies might tend to introduce the ones with low exigencies using them as a legitimacy front this strategy jeopardizes the reputation of social and environmental standards among stakeholders and their long term trust in these instruments of csr meaning that all expenses for their implementation are of no avail for the companies therefore this paper highlights which criteria are important for the selection implementation and improvement in order to achieve a company s aim but also to strengthen the legitimacy of social and environmental standards this research is based on conceptual thought and some existing empirical research comparing four different social and environmental standards revealing weaknesses and strengths it exposes the basic conditions for the success of such standards among stakeholders and identifies the need for more empirical data