Seminar in International Economics: Trading up or down through voluntary sustainability standards in global agri-food trade?
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The Competence Centre for International Economics Research (FIW) kindly invites to participate in the Seminar in International Economics on the topic
Trading up or down through voluntary sustainability standards in global agri-food trade?
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are widespread market-based instruments for governing sustainability in global food trade. Socio-economic and environmental impacts of VSS are inconsistent, raising concerns about VSS distorting trade without sustainability gains. We provide an unprecedented analysis of VSS trade effects for seven tropical commodity sectors, based on uniquely compiled data on VSS coverage and gravity models including all bilateral trade flows. VSS adoption enhances trade through increased price competitiveness – we find that a one percentage point increase in the share of certified production area expands bilateral trade volumes by 2.1% and reduces export prices by 0.16%. Effects vary with VSS design, with stringent environmental requirements leading to the largest trade benefits. VSS reduce the trade-inhibiting effect of governance distance between countries if they are not too stringent in their compliance procedures. Rather than contributing to sustainability trading up, VSS seem to exacerbate price competition in global food markets.
This event is co-organised with the European University Institute (EUI) and the Research Centre International Economics (FIW). The seminar provides a forum for presentation and discussion of recent academic research in the field of international economics.
The event will be recorded.
Registration: This is an online event – please register here
Language: English
Speaker: Miet Maertens leads the Agricultural and Rural Development Economics research group at KU Leuven, and is professor at the Division of Bio-economics and vice-chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at KU Leuven (Belgium). She holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics (2003) from the Georg-August University in Goettingen (Germany) and MSc degrees in Economics (1999) and in Bioscience Engineering (1998) from KU Leuven. She teaches several Bachelor and Master courses in the field of agricultural, environmental and food economics at KU Leuven. Her research primarily focuses on low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Discussant: Marcelo Dolabella is a Senior Research Analyst at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He specializes in applied international trade and environmental research using quantitative methods. He has experience in issues related to the climate-trade nexus, non-tariff measures, global value chains, foreign direct investment, and trade agreement impact assessments. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Economics with distinction honors from Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and B.Sc. degrees in Economics from IBMEC University (Brazil) and in European Management from EM Strasbourg (France).
This event is co-organised with the European University Institute (EUI) and the Research Centre International Economics (FIW). The seminar provides a forum for presentation and discussion of recent academic research in the field of international economics.
The event will be recorded.
