the ambivalent impact of coffee certification on farmers welfare a matched panel approach for cooperatives in central kenya certification is promoted to improve rural welfare through better market access and improved agricultural practices we compare net effects of fairtrade and utz certified coffee production in central kenya using a matched panel from 218 farm households that belong to three cooperatives and were visited twice in 2009 and 2013 we distinguish between effects at field farm household cooperative community and market levels both certification regimes improved coffee returns but fairtrade was more effective in coffee processing whereas utz contributed to productivity under stagnating coffee prices fairtrade farmers increased their coffee specialization while utz farmers reduced coffee areas but increased yield

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

the impact of fair trade certification for coffee farmers in peru smallholder farmers producing for fair trade market outlets are usually considered to benefit from better prices and stable market outlets however many empirical studies verifying this impact suffer from strong selection bias this study uses a balanced sample of fair trade farmers and likewise nonfair trade producers of organic and conventional coffee from peru to compare the net effects on production income and expenditures wealth and investments and attitudes and perceptions after careful matching we find only modest direct income and production effects but significant changes in organization input use wealth and assets and risk attitudes moreover important differences between farmers with early and more recent ft affiliation are registered

artisanal gold and transformational exchange toward a public private partnership in tanzania abstract human rights abuses environmental predations and governance failures plague artisanal gold mining in tanzania gold s exchange value and the illegality of most artisanal gold product challenge the traditional fair trade model a potential solution additionally memories of the government s earlier failed effort to serve as a sole purchaser of artisanal gold undercut enthusiasm for statist interventions this paper presents an alternative a public private partnership ppp that would engage one or more private banks an agency within the ministry of energy and minerals and ngos or international initiatives specifically aimed at improving conditions for artisanal mine operators the concept of transformational exchange wherein a set of business transactions substantially affects societal expectations modifies behavior and promotes sustainable mechanisms frames the proposal

profits and poverty certification s troubled link for nicaragua s organic and fairtrade coffee producers abstract governments donors and ngos have promoted environmental and social certification schemes for coffee producers as certified market channels are assumed to offer higher prices and better incomes additionally it is presumed that these certifications contribute to poverty reduction of smallholders yet gross margins profits and poverty levels of certified smallholder coffee producers have not yet been quantitatively analyzed applying random sampling techniques our quantitative household survey of 327 randomly selected members of conventional organic and organic fairtrade certified cooperatives in nicaragua is complemented by over a hundred qualitative in depth interviews the results show that although farm gate prices of certified coffees are higher than of conventional coffees the profitability of certified coffee production and its subsequent effect on poverty levels is not clear cut per capita net coffee incomes are insufficient to cover basic needs of all coffee producing households certified producers are more often found below the absolute poverty line than conventional producers over a period of ten years our analysis shows that organic and organic fairtrade farmers have become poorer relative to conventional producers we conclude that coffee yield levels profitability and efficiency need to be increased because prices for certified coffee cannot compensate for low productivity land or labor constraints

rural nonfarm employment and incomes in latin america overview and policy implications abstract rural nonfarm employment rnfe and incomes rnfi are crucial to latin american rural households the 11 rural household income studies in this volume reviewed in this paper use 1990s data and show that rnfi averages 40 of rural incomes rnfi and rnfe have grown quickly over the past three decades the review of evidence provided some surprising departures from traditional images of nonfarm activities of latin american rural households in terms of shares of rural incomes 1 nonfarm wage incomes exceed self employment incomes 2 rnfi far exceeds farm wage incomes 3 local rnfi far exceeds migration incomes 4 service sector rnfi far exceeds manufactures rnfi these findings suggest the need for more development program attention to wage employment in the service sector versus the traditional focus on small enterprise manufactures moreover poor households and zones tend to have higher shares in their incomes but lower absolute levels of rnfi as compared to richer households and zones the rnfe of the poor tend to be the low paid nonfarm equivalent of semi subsistence farming raising the capacity of the poor to participate in the better paid types of rnfe is crucial via employment skills training education infrastructure credit finally rnfe has grown fastest and been most poverty alleviating where there are dynamic growth motors in particular in the agricultural sector but also in tourism links to urban areas mining and forestry this means that developing rnf jobs cannot be done at the expense of programs promoting agricultural development

fair trade standards corporate participation and social movement responses in the united states this article examines the development of and contestation over the standards for certified fair trade with particular attention to the u s context it charts fair trade s rapid growth in the united states since the 1999 advent of formal certification explores the controversies generated by the strategy of market mainstreaming in the sector and focuses on five key issues that have generated particularly heated contention within the u s fair trade movement it offers a theoretical framework based in the literatures on agrifood systems social movements and public choice economics for understanding the corporate response to alternative markets such as fair trade the article suggests a typology of responses by social movement actors to this increased corporate participation and assesses the relevance of the u s case for the future prospects of fair trade both in other national contexts and as an international movement

the ten commandments for organizing a conference once upon a time an economist a head of department and a phd student were walking along a river and came upon a dusty bottle sealed with an ancient cork on removing the cork to check if any wine were left they were amazed to see a fierce genie burst from the bottle and bow before them the genie offered each of the three a wish in gratitude for freedom the economist asked to be responsible for organizing the most successful conference in the history of the universe the head of department asked not to be involved with it in any way and the phd student asked to be on the local organizing committee instantly the three wishes were granted at one time or another during their careers most economists heads of departments and phd students will have one or more opportunities to be involved in organizing a conference as the opportunities for finding a grateful genie with a graduate diploma in conference organization are generally quite limited the most successful conference ever imagined typically relies on foresight skill hard work and divine intervention in my experience those who have survived organizing a conference have adhered to the following ten commandments

the economics of smallholder organic contract farming in tropical africa summary the paper examines the revenue effects of certified organic contract farming for smallholders and of adoption of organic agricultural farming methods in a tropical african context the comparison in both cases is with farming systems that are organic by default survey data from a large organic coffee contract farming scheme in uganda are reported and analyzed using a standard ols regression and a full information maximum likelihood fiml estimate of the heckman selection model the analysis finds that controlling for a range of factors there are positive revenue effects both from participation in the scheme and more modestly from applying organic farming techniques

non agricultural earnings in peri urban areas of tanzania evidence from household survey data abstract this study draws on purposive survey data of approximately 600 households in peri urban tanzania to describe the degree and nature of non farm diversification in these settings with the exception of relatively dynamic cities such as dar es salaam and arusha overall non farm incomes shares are not unambiguously higher than in rural areas as a whole non farm income shares rise sharply and monotonically with quintiles defined in terms of per capita food consumption in that sense the sector appears to offer an important route out of poverty the evidence suggests that education and access to infrastructure are important determinants of non farm incomes in peri urban areas women appear to be poorly placed vis a vis the non farm sector even after controlling for education age and other characteristics kinship and tribal affinities and time devoted to communal activities appear to deter entrepreneurial activity and non farm employment but trust in officials and public servants and strong heterogeneous village associations are important in stimulating non farm activity

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

does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in global production networks evidence from morocco summary this paper contributes to the global production networks gpns literature by analyzing the relationship between economic upgrading increase in the value added of production and social upgrading improvements for workers in gpns it does so by drawing on primary data from moroccan garment supplier firms showing that economic upgrading can lead to social upgrading with mixed outcomes especially in a fast fashion model the most advanced form of economic upgrading functional upgrading often translates into social upgrading and downgrading simultaneously for different workers this is due to contradictory commercial requirements imposed by global buyers in gpns

a cross country comparison of rural income generating activities summary this paper uses a newly constructed cross country database composed of comparable income aggregates to examine the full range of income generating activities carried out by rural households the analysis paints a clear picture of multiple activities across rural space in countries on all four continents though less so in the included african countries for most countries the largest share of income stems from off farm activities and the largest share of households has diversified sources of income diversification not specialization is the norm nevertheless agricultural sources of income remain critically important for rural livelihoods in all countries

nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural africa concepts dynamics and policy implications abstract asset activity and income diversification lie at the heart of livelihood strategies in rural africa this paper introduces a special issue on the topic income diversification and livelihoods in rural africa cause and consequence of change we concentrate on core conceptual issues that bedevil the literature on rural income diversification and the policy implications of the empirical evidence presented in this special issue

the ten commandments for managing value at risk under the basel ii accord under the basel ii accord banks and other authorized deposit taking institutions adis are required to communicate their daily market risk estimates to the relevant national monetary authority at the beginning of each trading day using one of a variety of value at risk var models to measure risk the purpose of this paper is to provide a simple explanation and a set of prescriptions for managing var under the basel ii accord the commandments deal with understanding the basel ii colours understanding the risk model before choosing varying the choice of risk model avoiding the green zone and being willing to violate incurring large violations stopping before the red zone avoiding frequent violations avoiding the estimation of large portfolios aggregating portfolios into a single index and interpreting commandments sensibly as guidelines

the globalization of organic agro food networks summary this article analyzes the booming world trade in organic agro foods such as tropical products counterseasonal fresh produce and processed foods research focuses on expanding south north networks linking major us and european markets with major production regions particularly in latin america employing a commodity network approach i analyze organic production distribution and consumption patterns and the roles of social political and economic actors in consolidating international trade organic certification proves central to network governance shaping product specifications production parameters and enterprise participation my analysis identifies key contradictions between mainstream agro industrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks 2004 published by elsevier ltd

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

certification and access to export markets adoption and return on investment of organic certified pineapple farming in ghana summary global food markets demand adherence to food standards by farmers in developing countries such as globalgap and organic certifications this paper analyzes the adoption and profitability of certified farming using farm level data of 386 ghanaian small scale pineapple farmers we employ an endogenous switching regression model to examine the adoption and impact of organic certification on the return on investment roi in pineapple farming the empirical results indicate that both organic and globalgap certification achieve a positive roi however organic certified farming yields a significantly higher roi than globalgap certified farmers mainly due to the price premium on the organic market

collective learning in global diffusion spreading quality standards in a developing country cluster this research analyzes how foreign organizational practices diffuse among indigenous enterprises in a developing economy it highlights the collective knowledge building process as central for understanding diffusion based on a longitudinal case study of a cluster of dairy producers in nicaragua a representative low income country it looks at cross border diffusion in conditions that differ significantly from advanced economies the current literature that highlights institutional pressures driving global spread of practices has limits for capturing a significant dynamic caused by increased integration of markets and production by focusing on production organization and practices in a late developing context this paper explains the intertwined process of spreading new standards and changing existing local practices by elaborating the relationship among building collective capabilities learning and standards diffusion this study enriches current views on institutional effects and adds to the practice based literature as well as to the work on developing economy firms in organizational research

tracking the quality premium of certified coffee evidence from ethiopia summary certification of voluntary sustainability standards vss is rapidly increasing in global value chains while consumers mostly in developed countries are willing to pay significant premiums for the certification of such standards it is not well understood how effectively these incentives are transmitted to producing countries we study vss more in particular fair trade and organic certification in ethiopia s coffee sector the country s most important export commodity using a unique census of transaction data at the export level and large scale data at the production level we find that transmission of export quality premiums to coffee producers is limited with only less than one third of this premium being passed on and we find limited evidence of effects due to communal investments moreover as quality premiums are small and average production levels in these settings are low we estimate that these premiums would only lead to an increased income for coffee farmers of 22 usd per year even with a perfect transmission scenario and therefore would have little impact on the welfare of the average coffee farmer given that the vss studied are characterized by the highest premiums among vss schemes it can be assumed that even lower benefits from other vss certification schemes trickle down to producers

exploring double side selling in cooperatives case study of four coffee cooperatives in rwanda apart from the difficulty to attract new members leakage of sales outside the cooperative is a major challenge for the coffee cooperatives in rwanda local independent traders still constitute a major market for coffee producers yet cooperatives also accept the produce from non members and pay them the same price our objective in this paper is to analyse the importance of this phenomenon of double side selling we collected data from a sample of 170 coffee farmers we use a probit model to analyse characteristics linked to cooperative membership and to study double side selling we describe the trade relationships between farmers and the cooperative on the one hand and between farmers and traders on the other by the attributes of transaction costs involved in the trade of coffee membership characteristics include easy access to labour land tenure risk aversion and mutual trust between farmers and cooperatives management preference to sell to traders can be explained by the trust farmers seem to have in them after the repeated transactions in credit and basic consumption items and by long term relationships in the community

an empirical analysis of euro cash payments abstract if the denominational structure of the euro is used in an optimal way there should be no preferences for certain coins and notes when making cash payments in kippers et al 2003 an empirical study of cash payments statistica neerlandica 57 484 508 it is documented that the dutch public did have certain preferences concerning the dutch guilder in the sense that a few notes and coins were used less often than they should have been with the advent of the euro which changed the denominational structure from 1 2 1 2 5 guilder to 1 2 5 euro it is of interest to examine whether there are any preferences for euro coins and notes in this paper we use a unique dataset for the netherlands to empirically examine if the euro range is used in an optimal way we find that there are no preferences for certain euro denominations

using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in africa abstract the labor market literature in developing countries has seldom drawn on the studies of rural household income diversification this paper draws on such studies to inform future study of the rural nonfarm labor market in africa the review of evidence provides some surprising departures from traditional images of nonfarm activities of rural households among the most striking is the dominant importance in the majority of case study areas of nonfarm wage labor as compared to self employment of nonfarm sector earnings as compared to farm sector wage earnings and of local nonfarm earnings as compared to migration earnings the most worrying finding was the poor distribution of nonfarm earnings in rural areas despite the importance of these earnings to food security and farm investments this poor distribution implies significant entry barriers and market segmentation it is probable that this will lead over time to an increasingly skewed distribution of land and other assets in rural africa

developing agricultural markets in sub saharan africa organic cocoa in rural uganda abstract this article investigates the process of development in a traditional african export market focusing on a contract farming scheme for organic cocoa in rural uganda based on a repeated household survey we measure the impact of the scheme on the income of participants and the economic mechanisms behind these effects we find substantial benefits from the scheme driven primarily by the establishment of credible incentives for farmers to adopt technologies which improve cocoa quality there is also evidence of broader trends of market deepening and increased productivity probably due to positive spillovers

conservation agriculture organic marketing and collective action in the honduran hillsides conservation agriculture ca is often perceived to provide win win outcomes for farmers leading to reduced erosion and off site sedimentation as well as improved soil fertility and productivity however adoption rates for ca in many regions of the world remain below expected levels this article looks at the effects of participation in organic markets and farmers organizations on the adoption of soil conservation practices based on original survey data from 241 small scale farm households in honduras we find that both participation in organic markets and farmer based groups have positive effects on the number of soil conservation practices adopted the results indicate that besides supply oriented policy measures such as the provision of technical assistance and extension demand related factors are likely to play an important role in sustainable soil management demand oriented policy measures include support for labeling initiatives and consumer education to facilitate value added product differentiation and market segmentation jel classifications q01 q12 q13 q16

linking smallholders to markets determinants and impacts of farmer collective action in kenya summary this article investigates determinants and impacts of cooperative organization using the example of smallholder banana farmers in kenya farmer groups are inclusive of the poor although wealthier households are more likely to join employing propensity score matching we find positive income effects for active group members yet price advantages of collective marketing are small and high value market potentials have not yet been tapped beyond prices farmer groups function as important catalysts for innovation adoption through promoting efficient information flows we discuss the conditions under which collective action is useful and through what mechanisms the potential benefits emerge

corporate leadership multilevel enforcement and biodiversity regulation globalization incentives the rise of non state actors in unprecedented ways along with the creation of transnational arenas which are neither international intergovernmental nor national domestic but transborder political processes where firms non governmental organizations ngos states and social communities set up rules and provide governance mechanisms to enforce those at local level the article is anchored in the idea that public private governance matters where the primary driver is the market incentive we test the hypotheses that public private cooperation at local level is based on shared knowledge and expertise among firms civil society and state authority dealing with a natural resource which comes from the brazilian biodiversity ngos and companies have developed the ability to act as enforcers as they interpret the public international national regulation and develop an expertise through best practices that are applied to enforce biodiversity regulation at the local level through a multilevel system that operates transnationally

government interventions in sustainable supply chain governance experience in dutch front running cases numerous multi actor governance systems have recently emerged ensuring sustainability of international traded products business and civil society actors play a dominant role in initiating and governing sustainable supply chain governance systems sscg systems within specific product markets we see the emergence of various competing sscg systems this has led to debates on effectiveness transparency and legitimacy of these forms of self governance in the market these developments also call for a debate on appropriate roles for national governments most of the academic literature in this field focuses on methodologies for supply chain governance and their impacts but hardly addresses the roles taken on by governments and effectiveness of possible government interventions this article combines analysis of market dynamics in the timber and coffee product chains with policy analysis integrating approaches from the research fields of sustainable business and policy analysis the article shows how competition between various sustainable supply chain governance systems in the netherlands has resulted in recent market breakthroughs while initially government interventions were very limited and diverse the article suggests an approach for more systematic analysis of these dynamics and the roles of various actors by identifying both the public policy cycle and the private policy cycle

decoupling standards from practice the impact of in house certifications on coffee farms environmental and social conduct in this paper we investigate whether coffee farms that have been granted in house socio environmental certification from a global buyer display better social and environmental conduct compared to non certified farms we perform an econometric analysis using data from an original cross country survey covering 575 farms in various regions of brazil colombia costa rica guatemala and mexico we find that farms that have been granted in house certification demonstrate better environmental but not better social conduct than non certified farms we find also that the positive relationship between in house certification and environmental conduct is stronger if the farm sells to a cooperative and if it is located in an institutionally weak country finally we find that the institutional strength of the farm s home country has a positive influence on its social conduct we discuss how our analysis contributes to the literature on the social and environmental impacts of certifications and to scholarship in global value chains social and environmental upgrading

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

fair trade organic coffee production in nicaragua sustainable development or a poverty trap abstract this article assesses the impact of fair trade organic coffee production on the well being of small scale farmers in nicaragua studying the results of organic management is crucial for evaluating the advantages of fair trade because approximately half of all fair trade coffee is also organically certified a wide range of farmers representatives of cooperatives and export companies in nicaragua were interviewed during seven months of field work between 2005 and 2008 fair trade organic production raises farmer income when low intensity organic farming is an alternative to low intensity conventional farming however low intensity farming produces very little coffee in the case of the most marginalized farmers keeping these farmers in poverty with higher intensities of management the economic advantages of fair trade organic production largely depend on prices in the mainstream market

fair trade organic coffee rural livelihoods and the agrarian question southern mexican coffee families in transition summary we use a random sample of coffee producing households in southern mexico to compare opportunities associated with government subsidies and migration to the role of fair trade organic coffee in household livelihoods although land and labor returns among fair trade organic coffee growers are higher than for conventional growers differences in yields are more important than price premiums moreover investment in education and labor opportunities outside coffee dominate those in fair trade organic coffee the results highlight the value of an integrated approach to the agrarian question that improves productivity and prices and supports other pathways for improving incomes

faith and fair trade the moderating role of contextual religious salience normative and historical arguments support the idea that religion potentially shapes decisions to support fair trade products that said the question of how religion influences organizational decision makers to purchase fair trade products in a business to business context has remained largely unaddressed this research examines the interactive effect of individual religious commitment and contextual religious salience on an individual s willingness to pay a price premium for a fair trade product when buying on behalf of an organization findings from two experimental studies involving 75 and 87 working individuals respectively reveal that the effect of a decision maker s religious commitment on his or her willingness to pay a price premium for the purchase of a fair trade product on behalf of an organization is moderated by the contextual salience of religion specifically when religion is highly salient in the organizational context religious commitment is positively related to the decision maker s willingness to pay a premium for the fair trade product when contextual religious salience is low religious commitment and willingness to pay a premium are unrelated implications for theory and practice are presented

more on optimal denominations for coins and currency abstract telser telser l b 1995 optimal denominations for coins and currency economics letters 49 425 427 has shown that the problem of b chet helps answer the question of the optimal denominational structure of currency in the u s and u k this note provides further evidence to support this claim using cross country data 1997 elsevier science s a

the effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation abstract farm certification is rapidly becoming a sine qua non for access to specialty coffee markets at the centre of these changes are smallholder coffee producers responsible for 80 of global coffee production although rural households are known to depend on more than agricultural production alone the literature on specialty coffee and certification has rather narrowly focused on coffee income and production in this study broader impacts are explicitly taken into account household income was decomposed into categories corresponding to specific income generating activities and coffee income was broken down into price yield and area effects results show that coffee certification encourages farmers to specialise in coffee production increasing coffee income but not total household income at least not in the short run the time and effort required to attain the higher coffee income offered by certified production means farmers have to give up other activities this substitution effect cancels out the income effect such that there is no increase in total household income the lack of an effect on total household income suggests the return to the additional labour effort required for certified coffee production is not higher than in other activities questioning the benefits of certification for small scale producers

livelihood diversification in uganda patterns and determinants of change across two rural districts despite the continuing centrality of agriculture to the rural economy of uganda households engage in diverse livelihood strategies this paper presents findings of a two district study of the role of various factors that influence livelihood trends and strategies qualitative and quantitative analysis reveals differences according to wealth gender and between traditional and non traditional occupations comparisons drawn between the two districts kumi in the eastern region and rakai in the central region identify social and historical as well as contemporary levels of investment as the determinants of varying levels of livelihood diversification

multinational corporations economic and human rights impacts on developing countries a review and research agenda developing countries are attracting a significant portion of global foreign direct investments governments of such countries often compete fiercely for attracting multinational corporations mncs in the expectation of the advantages they will bring to their economies often prioritising economic goals over fundamental human rights for a long time economists have analysed the economic impacts of mncs while a parallel strand of work in political science business ethics and international law investigates the repercussions of mnc operations on human rights despite the significant relatedness and complementarities these two bodies of literature have so far poorly interacted this paper addresses this limitation and systematically analyses and integrates existing micro level empirical evidence on the economic and human rights impacts of mncs on developing countries it provides a critical analysis of what is known and highlights what we do not know about the factors that mediate the positive and or negative impacts of mnc operations on host developing countries based on a critical analysis of the literature it discusses avenues for future research in this field and sets the grounds for a new interdisciplinary research agenda on this subject

peasant household behaviour with missing markets some paradoxes explained a model of peasant household behavior under varying degrees of household specific food and labor market failures is constructed to show that these structural features can explain several well known patterns of peasant response which have often been attributed to peculiar motives presumed specific to peasants the model explains sluggish response to cash crops prices and high instability in perceived food and labor scarcities the key role of manufactured consumer goods prices in stimulating peasants effort in cash crops production the effectiveness of taxation as opposed to incentives in stimulating cash crops production and the key role of technological change in food production to enhance cash crop production results are obtained analytically in the case of one market failure and by numerical simulation with more than one

in the name of conservation cafe practices and fair trade in mexico consumers concerns for the environment have led to the creation of niche markets quality certifications and labelling systems built by activists and ngos these systems were adopted by agribusiness such firms try to capture consumers and react to opinion campaigns whilst appropriating the conservation or fair discourse this leads to the rise of new forms of third party certifications of food production based on private standards and hence to new forms of contract relations between producers and buyers the nature of these relationships is not always evident in these new labels or in the discourse built to justify them this is particularly so in the case of goods produced in the south to be traded and sold in the north as the case of starbucks illustrates by the end of the 1990s starbucks operating through an ngo called conservation international ci arrived at the region of el triunfo in chiapas and contacted the producers cooperatives that were trying to find a market for their product ci promoted starbucks standards to raise the coffee quality and won the control over the production system meanwhile the producers forced to sell their coffee through the largest trade company amsa against whom the cooperatives were created lost the control over their own organization when some cooperatives refused the deal they suffered divisions but could survive thanks the fair trade ft network in chiapas

rising power clusters and the challenges of local and global standards this paper explores the intersection between three processes associated with globalisation first the rise of emerging economies like china brazil and india the so called rising powers and their potential to define the contours of globalisation global production arrangements and global governance in the twenty first century second the importance of corporate social responsibility csr goals in the shaping of global trade rules and industrial practices third the significance of small firm clusters as critical sites of industrial competitiveness some of the most significant examples of successful innovative and internationally competitive small firm clusters from the developing world are located in the rising powers and cluster promotion is a core element of national industrial policy in some of these countries there is also evidence of engagement by clustered actors with corporate social responsibility goals around labour and environmental impacts while these three processes have been separately studied there has been no attempt to explore their intersections this paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of secondary data and a detailed reading of the literature on csr and clusters in brazil china and india it assesses the evidence on small firm clusters in the rising power economies and considers how these rising power clusters engage with csr goals pertaining to labour social and environmental standards it argues for a greater focus on the formal and informal institutional context termed the social contract in explaining divergent experiences and practices observed across these countries this raises important questions for future academic and policy research on clusters csr and the rising powers the paper concludes by outlining a research agenda to explore the local and global consequences of the relationship between rising power clusters and international labour and environmental standards

effects of fair trade certification on social capital the case of rwandan coffee producers summary fair trade certification may have important social effects on small scale producers but empirical evidence is limited we conducted logistic regressions using data from a 2009 survey of rwandan coffee farmers to estimate the link between fair trade and social capital measured as farmer trust and participation while controlling for various other factors that could influence social capital particularly membership in a cooperative organization the results show a negative association between fair trade and farmer trust in cooperative leadership and a positive association with a perceived higher level of participation of women social capital is linked most significantly to farmers interaction with their neighbors

the ten commandments for ranking university quality in the rapidly changing world of higher education where increasing emphasis is being placed on the assessment of research and teaching quality as indicators of university quality the key issues that need to be considered have been debated widely in both the private and public sectors the uk and new zealand have undertaken rigorous research performance exercises over an extended period while australia is presently entering a similar phase of assessing research quality however ranking university quality is more general than assessing and ranking research quality alone to date the various stakeholders do not seem to have reached agreement on the most important indicators that need to be addressed in assessing and ranking university quality the ten commandments for ranking university quality address some of the key issues in the ongoing discussions starting with the original set of ten commandments most commandments seem to have been routinely ignored at least in part by all but the most conscientious and religious individuals for this reason the current set should perhaps be seen as guidelines rather than regulations

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

linking globalization to local land uses how eco consumers and gourmands are changing the colombian coffee landscapes market trends are becoming prominent forces shaping local landscapes the increasing demand for high quality and sus tainable coffees is driving land use decisions among colombian farmers a value chain analysis shows that farmers who sell to differen tiated markets significantly captured a larger portion of the value added and faced lower volatility than mainstream producers consequently regions apt for producing differentiated coffees experienced the greatest increase in area planted tracing the value chain reveals how land use decisions increasingly depend on the pressures and opportunities created by global markets with detectable impacts on livelihoods and landscapes

currency by denomination abstract the distribution of the dutch currency circulation by denomination is related to the requirements of efficient payment i e payment involving a minimum number of coins or banknotes for any amount

rural nonfarm employment and income diversification in colombia abstract using data for rural households from colombia we find that off farm employment contributes a significant share 45 on average to household income but that the importance of off farm income and returns to household labor vary over the income distribution analysis reveals significant gains from specialization but for households able to specialize no systematic differences in returns to labor between farm and nonfarm sources we conclude that in colombia there is no conflict between development of the farm and the nonfarm sector but that to maximize gains from nonfarm development and reduce the scope for undesirable distributional consequences policies enabling households to specialize might be called for

the ten commandments for managing investments abstract stress and distress are unavoidable aspects of dealing with the vagaries of financial markets and financial advisers the purpose of this paper is to try to reduce the discomfort in dealing with investment advisers and to make the journey up and down the financial mountain a little less stressful and more satisfying the commandments deal with defining investment policies precisely diversifying asset classes choosing a consistent benchmark for investment policies structuring precisely the asset allocation process defining risk and risk management procedures monitoring the portfolio carefully matching the allocation and investment horizons being active or passive according to investment policies being agnostic about model forecasts and being aware that while buy low and sell high is a truism investors and financial advisers are only human and therefore make mistakes

determinants of income diversification amongst rural households in southern mali abstract household level panel data from a representative sample of rural households in southern mali describing the different sources of household income are used to examine the determinants of income diversification a conditional fixed effects logit model is employed in the analysis to control for household specific effects we find evidence that poorer households have fewer opportunities in non cropping activities such as livestock rearing and non farm work and hence less diversified incomes this appears to reflect their relative lack of capital which makes it difficult for them to diversify away from subsistence agriculture the results also indicate that households in remote areas are less likely to participate in the non cropping sector than their counterparts closer to local markets while households with educated heads are more likely to participate in the non farm sector than those with illiterate heads the significance of entry constraints in explaining portfolio diversification suggests that the role of government in making assets as well as improved infrastructure available to poorer households is still essential in promoting income diversification

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

global private regulation and value chain restructuring in indonesian smallholder coffee systems summary consumer concerns over the environmental and social conditions of coffee production have led to the proliferation of sustainability codes certification schemes and labeling claims in the sector this paper addresses how the global private regulation of ethical and environmental standards is having several implications for value chain structures and institutions in the smallholder coffee systems of indonesia global private regulation is driving structural changes in modes of farmer organization trader farmer relationships and is resulting in the increased upstream penetration of multinational trading companies into coffee producing areas across indonesia an unintended consequence of these changes in the future may be to increase transaction costs along the value chain and to exert an overall downward pressure on farm gate prices

optimal denominations for coins and currency abstract let all denominations have the same cost let transactions be any amount between 1 and 3 k 1 1 2 since one can make change the least expensive set of weights requires denominations that are powers of 3 from 1 to k

empowering coffee traders the coffee value chain from nicaraguan fair trade farmers to finnish consumers this article analyzes the distribution of benefits from fair trade between producing and consuming countries fair trade and conventional coffee production and trade were examined in nicaragua in 2005 2006 and 2008 consumption of the respective coffees was assessed in finland in 2006 2009 the results indicate that consumers paid considerably more for fair trade certified coffee than for the other alternatives available although fair trade provided price premiums to producer organizations a larger share of the retail prices remained in the consuming country relative to conventional coffee trade paradoxically along with the certified farmers and cooperatives fair trade empowers roasters and retailers

the economic sustainability of certified coffee recent evidence from mexico and peru consumers increasingly act on preferences for a more just and sustainable world by purchasing certified agricultural products using survey data from coffee growers in mexico and peru we explore the economic sustainability of certified coffee looking at conventional fair trade organic and rainforest alliance certified growers the analysis reveals that yields rather than price premiums are most important for increasing net cash returns for coffee growing households given the link between net returns and producer participation in certified coffee schemes the findings suggest that certification norms that permit improving yields are essential for improving grower welfare and attracting and maintaining growers

fair trade and free entry can a disequilibrium market serve as a development tool abstract the fair trade ft coffee initiative attempts to channel charity from consumers to poor producers via increased prices we show that the rules of the ft system permit this rent to be eliminated due to free entry and costly excess certification of output using data from an association of coffee cooperatives in central america we verify that expected producer benefits are close to 0 when we take into account the output that is certified but not sold as ft our results illustrate how free entry undermines the attempt at extending charity via a price distortion in an otherwise competitive market

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

ethical objections to fairtrade the fairtrade movement is a group of businesses claiming to trade ethically the claims are evaluated under a range of criteria derived from the utilitarian ethic firstly if aid or charity money is diverted from the very poorest people to the quite poor or the rich there is an increase in death and destitution it is shown that little of the extra paid by consumers for fairtrade reaches farmers sometimes none it cannot be shown that it has a positive impact on fairtrade farmers in general but evidence suggesting it harms others is presented many of the weaknesses are due to an attempt to impose political views on farmers and others secondly the unfair trading criteria require that sellers do not lie about their product nor withhold information that might alter the decisions of a substantial proportion of buyers it is argued that the system only can exist because of the failure of the fairtrade industry to give the facts on what happens to the money and what it can be proved it achieves this unfair trading compromises the reputation of charities in general much of the trading may constitute the criminal offence of unfair trading in the eu

the value of life and the rise in health spending over the past half century americans spent a rising share of total economic resources on health and enjoyed substantially longer lives as a result debate on health policy often focuses on limiting the growth of health spending we investigate an issue central to this debate is the growth of health spending a rational response to changing economic conditions notably the growth of income per person we develop a model based on standard economic assumptions and argue that this is indeed the case standard preferences of the kind used widely in economics to study consumption asset pricing and labor supply imply that health spending is a superior good with an income elasticity well above one as people get richer and consumption rises the marginal utility of consumption falls rapidly spending on health to extend life allows individuals to purchase additional periods of utility the marginal utility of life extension does not decline as a result the optimal composition of total spending shifts toward health and the health share grows along with income in projections based on the quantitative analysis of our model the optimal health share of spending seems likely to exceed 30 percent by the middle of the century

income portfolios in rural ethiopia and tanzania choices and constraints the article analyses the different income portfolios of households using survey data from rural ethiopia and rural tanzania it suggests that the different portfolios held by households cannot be e

economic and social upgrading in global value chains and industrial clusters why governance matters the burgeoning literature on global value chains gvcs has recast our understanding of how industrial clusters are shaped by their ties to the international economy but within this context the role played by corporate social responsibility csr continues to evolve new research in the past decade allows us to better understand how csr is linked to industrial clusters and gvcs with geographic production and trade patterns in many industries becoming concentrated in the global south lead firms in gvcs have been under growing pressure to link economic and social upgrading in more integrated forms of csr this is leading to a confluence of private governance corporate codes of conduct and monitoring social governance civil society pressure on business from labor organizations and non governmental organizations and public governance government policies to support gains by labor groups and environmental activists this new form of synergistic governance is illustrated with evidence from recent studies of gvcs and industrial clusters as well as advances in theorizing about new patterns of governance in gvcs and clusters

engel curves for fair trade consumption and development perspectives for producers evidence from data on real fairtrade purchases while fairtrade sales have exhibited two digit growth rates over recent decades their capacity to become large enough to generate substantial gains for producers is still uncertain estimating fai

the formation of cooperatives a game theoretic approach with implications for cooperative finance decision making and stability this paper departs from the traditional organization oriented approach to cooperative analysis it exploits cooperation s functional similarity to vertical integration to examine individuals incentives to form cooperatives a model of formation of a purchasing cooperative is presented and developed as an n person game with the core as a solution concept core existence is examined for both single and multiple cooperative configurations and cooperative finance methods are examined relative to finding core compatible allocation rules the results provide insight into a cooperative s equilibrium output stability decision making financing methods and choice of open or restricted membership

how much more do growers receive for fair trade organic coffee abstract i use a representative sample of coffee growing households in southern mexico to estimate the price premium and gross income gain from participating in fair trade organic markets through grower cooperatives for the 2004 2005 season ft organic growers received an average premium of 12 8 cents per pound yielding a gross income gain of 5 of total household income or about 26 dollars per household member the gain is net of the costs of cooperative participation but not of other costs incurred to become certified and suggests that price premiums alone have a limited potential to increase household returns from growing coffee more broadly speaking the finding raises questions about the persistence of substantial price premiums associated with social or environmental labeling initiatives

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

trading off nutrition and education a panel data analysis of the dissimilar welfare effects of organic and fairtrade standards millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries participate in different types of sustainability standards a growing body of literature has analyzed the welfare effects with mixed results yet there are important knowledge gaps first most existing studies have looked at the effects of one standard in one country when comparing between studies it is unclear whether dissimilar outcomes are the result of different standards or different local conditions second most studies have used cross section data so that selectivity issues remain a challenge third existing work has primarily analyzed effects in terms of purely economic indicators such as prices and income ignoring other dimensions of household welfare we address these shortcomings using panel data from small scale coffee producers in uganda and comparing the effects of two of the most popular sustainability standards namely organic and fairtrade welfare effects are analyzed in terms of household expenditures child education and nutrition results show that organic and fairtrade both have positive effects on total consumption expenditures however notable differences are observed in terms of the other outcomes organic contributes to improved nutrition but has no effect on education for fairtrade it is exactly the other way around we explore the mechanisms behind these differences

food standards certification and poverty among coffee farmers in uganda summary voluntary standards are gaining in importance in global markets for high value foods we analyze and compare impacts of three sustainability oriented standards fairtrade organic and utz on the livelihoods of smallholder coffee farmers in uganda using survey data and propensity score matching with multiple treatments we find that fairtrade certification increases household living standards by 30 and reduces the prevalence and depth of poverty for the other two certification schemes no significant impacts are found several factors that can explain differential impacts are discussed overly general statements about the effects of sustainability standards on smallholder livelihoods may be misleading

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

in the market but not of it fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification as market based social change summary this paper discusses two well known market based social change initiatives fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification which harness market forces to pursue social and environmental objectives a serious challenge for both is to operate in the conventional market without undermining their original objectives a global commodity chain analysis approach is combined with insights from economic sociology embeddedness theory to explore the social cultural and organizational factors shaping the initiatives governance structures both initiatives are seen to move along opposite organizational trajectories but face similar pressures from conventional market logics practices and dominant actors a preliminary framework is proposed for comparative assessment focusing on distribution of benefits how conventional market institutions may be questioned and how internal governance manages diverse stakeholder interests and influence

institutional emergence in an era of globalization the rise of transnational private regulation of labor and environmental conditions1 why have systems of transnational private regulation recently emerged to certify corporate social and environmental performance different conceptions of institutional emergence underlie different answers to this question many scholars argue that firms create certification systems to solve problems in the market a view rooted in a conception of institutions as solutions to collective action problems the author develops a different account by viewing institutions as the outcome of political contestation and by analyzing conflict and institutional entrepreneurship among a wide array of actors using a comparative case study design the analysis shows how these arguments explain the formation of social and environmental certification associations both theoretical approaches are needed but strong versions of the market based approach overlook an important set of dynamics that the author calls the political construction of market institutions the analysis shows how both problem solving in markets and

the way we pay with money we assess the sample distribution of payments in the netherlands using survey data for 1984 1986 the payment pattern fits a lognormal distribution with peaks caused by the price tags of the purchased items the results are used to simulate the use of coins and notes which indicates a rather efficient denominational mix but a high degree of hoarding for the large bank notes

income diversification and entry barriers evidence from the tigray region of northern ethiopia abstract farm households diversify their income sources into off farm wage employment motivated by low farm income and availability of surplus family labor whereas they enter into off farm self employment to earn an attractive return farm households have upward sloping although inelastic off farm labor supply curves therefore increasing the availability of off farm activities and improving the wage rate received by farm households can expand the economic activity of the tigray regional state due to entry barriers relatively wealthy farm households may dominate the most lucrative rural non farm activities such as masonry carpentry and petty trade hence the underlying factors that hinder participation in non farm activities such as credit constraints and lack of skill may have to be addressed through the provision of credit and technical training for the poor

standards as a new form of social contract sustainability initiatives in the coffee industry abstract in the former age of national capitalism the achievement of market fairness was embedded in a normative framework generated by government labor unions and perhaps religious authority in the current age of global capitalism new actors such as ngos industry associations and public private partnerships provide the normative framework that corporations use for social legitimacy in this context standard setting processes operate as new forms of social contract where the state rather than being directly involved between the parties provides a form of basic guarantee while more or less accountable ngos and firms are in charge of hammering out the bargains this article examines the dynamics of this new configuration through the case study of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector it addresses four questions 1 are these standards effective in communicating information and creating new markets 2 to what extent do they embed elements of collective and private interests 3 is sustainability content actually delivered to their intended beneficiaries and 4 what is the role of public policy in addressing their shortcomings

household strategies and rural livelihood diversification this article reviews the recent literature on diversification as a livelihood strategy of rural households in developing countries with particular reference to sub saharan africa livelihood diversification is defined as the process by which rural families construct a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities in order to survive and to improve their standards of living the determinants and effects of diversification in the areas of poverty income distribution farm output and gender are examined some policy inferences are summarised the conclusion is reached that removal of constraints to and expansion of opportunities for diversification are desirable policy objectives because they give individuals and households more capabilities to improve livelihood security and to raise living standards

income diversification poverty traps and policy shocks in cote d ivoire and kenya abstract this paper presents evidence on the effects of two different sorts of policy shocks on observed income diversification patterns in rural africa in cote d ivoire households with poor endowments were less able to respond to attractive emerging on farm and non farm opportunities due to entry barriers to superior livelihood strategies the benefits of exchange rate reform accrued disproportionately to households that were richer prior to devaluation by contrast food for work transfers to households in kenya significantly reduced liquidity constraints enabling project participants to pursue more lucrative livelihood strategies in non farm activities and higher return agricultural production patterns jointly these two shocks underscore the importance of liquidity market access and skill constraints to skilled non farm income sources to dynamic poverty traps in rural africa

reinventing strategies for emerging markets beyond the transnational model with established markets becoming saturated multinational corporations mncs have turned increasingly to emerging markets ems in the developing world such em strategies have been targeted almost exclusively at the wealthy elite at the top of the economic pyramid recently however a number of mncs have launched new initiatives that explore the untapped market potential at the base of the economic pyramid the largest and fastest growing segment of the world s population reaching the four billion people in these markets poses both tremendous opportunities and unique challenges to mncs as conventional wisdom about mnc global capabilities and subsidiary strategy in ems may not be appropriate how mncs can successfully enter these low income markets has not been effectively addressed in the literatures on global and em strategies an exploratory analysis involving interviews with mnc managers original case studies and archival material indicates that the transnational model of national responsiveness global efficiency and worldwide learning may not be sufficient results suggest that the success of initiatives targeting low income markets is enhanced by recognizing that western style patterns of economic development may not occur in these business environments business strategies that rely on leveraging the strengths of the existing market environment outperform those that focus on overcoming weaknesses these strategies include developing relationships with non traditional partners co inventing custom solutions and building local capacity together these successful strategies suggest the importance of mncs developing a global capability in social embeddedness

changing asset endowments and smallholder participation in higher value markets evidence from certified coffee producers in nicaragua this paper examines the capacities of smallholders in nicaragua to exploit new linkages to certified coffee markets following the coffee crisis data on livelihood assets were collected from 292 households which were clustered to test how differences in outcomes asset building reflect variations in initial asset endowments the results suggest that most households built particular elements of their asset base and increased their resilience to future shocks however households struggled to make effective use of the gains for intensifying their livelihoods of the least endowed households few made investments in the scale or productivity of coffee and most continued to depend heavily on subsistence production and seasonal off farm income for survival in conclusion improved market access alone even under relatively favorable market conditions and with considerable external support will have uncertain impacts on rural poverty if the underlying constraints on household assets and investments are not addressed concurrently