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THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FOOD STANDARDS:GMOS REGULATION AND TRADE
No full textAfter a wide proliferation in the last decades, nowadays standards are globally diffused and are having effects on world market. Adoption of public standards grew both in numbers and variety, including several areas like nutrition, health, quality, safety, environment and social concerns. Standards introduction is a controversy issue. Their adoption has been justified as a response to consumers concerns, but they are also having effects on trade. Several authors pointed out that public standards represents a new form of non tariff barriers (NTBs) and protection-in-disguise. Nevertheless, some empirical observations showed that standards may be anti-protectionist when foreign producers are more efficient in comply with standards than domestic ones. Parallel to public standards, food companies have increased the introduction of private standards. Private standards are adopted in the same domains as public standards (e.g. food safety and quality) to increase consumers’ trust and promote product differentiation. Private standards may also serve to preempt government regulations, in order to induce weaker public standards.
In this context, we analyzed the role of public and private food standards on the global food market. We focus on GMO standards given the relevance and sensitivity of this issue, both politically and commercially, in developed and in developing countries.
In the first chapter we present the problem of food standards, providing classification and definitions and discussing economic effects on trade and welfare and problem related to their measurement.
In the second chapter, we developed a composite index for 60 countries distributed in all continents. The index is obtained by assigning a score to main components of the GMO regulation: approval process, risk assessment, labeling, traceability, coexistence and membership in international agreements. The overall index is obtained by score summation and normalization, so that it ranges between 0 and 1. Higher values correspond to more stringent regulations. Moreover, we studied the socio-economic determinants of GMOs regulation among country pairs. We calculated two different measures of the bilateral GMO index, namely GMOwij and GMOdij, for comparison purposes. Explanatory variables are classified in three groups: trade costs, institutional differences and economic controls. Our econometric strategy is to compare three different OLS regression specifications. The first is a pooled specification, in the second we include country fixed effects and in the third we include country fixed effects coupled with a dummy variable controlling for EU membership. Results showed that health expenditure and trade flows are significant determinants of similarity in GMO standards. Countries with different health systems and health protection investments may adopt dissimilar GMO standards. Moreover, highest bilateral trade of major GM crops induce countries to set similar regulations, creating regulatory harmonization that reduce the protectionist impact of GMO regulation. This result is confirmed also by the negative effect on harmonization of tariffs.
In chapter three, we used the bilateral GMO index to analyze the effect of GMO regulation on bilateral trade flows of agricultural products. We investigate how bilateral similarity/dissimilarity in GMO regulation affects trade flows. We used a gravity model controlling for zero trade flows. Moreover, we instrumented the dependent variable to deal with endogeneity problems. Three main results are shown. First, countries with greater differences in GMO regulation trade significantly less. The level of harmonization of the GMO regulation is important to boost trade flows. Second, labeling, approval process and traceability are the most important components of the regulation. Third, the effect of endogeneity of GMO regulations to trade flows largely dominates in magnitude (about four times) the traditional selection bias problem.
In chapter four, we investigated through a political economy model why private standards are often more stringent than public ones. The model combines both aspects of retailers’ market power and producers’ political power. The public standard is assumed to be determined in a political game: producers, retailers, and consumers have some political power to influence the standard-setting process. The resulting public standard is set at a lower level than the private one. Additionally, we provide an empirical application to show how our model’s predictions fit the real world. We conducted a survey collecting information on GMOs private standards among a sample of 45 retailers. The findings are consistent with the model’s prediction. First, in Europe, GMO private standards are stricter than public standards for a large number of supermarkets, while in the US retailers set standards according with public regulation. Furthermore, the level of restrictiveness varies accordingly to consumers’ preferences and to public regulation of the country where retailers are operating
GMO Regulations, International Trade and the Imperialism of Standards
No full textThis paper deals with the quantification of GMO regulations on bilateral trade flows. A composite index of the ‘complexity’ of such regulations for sixty countries as well as an ‘objective’ score for six GMO regulatory sub-dimensions has been developed. Using a gravity model, we show how bilateral ‘similarity’ in GMO regulations, affect trade flows for the composite index and its components. Results show that bilateral distance in GMO regulations negatively affect trade flows, as an effect of especially labeling policies, approval process and traceability systems. Interesting, the trade reduction effect induced by GMO standards increase by a factor of four when GMO regulations is treated as endogenous to trade flows. This pattern is consistent with an international environment where large importing countries dictate the rules to developing countries
Patterns and determinants of GMO regulations: An overview of recent evidence
No full textAn increasing set of evidence has been reported on how countries set standards onf genetically modified food and their subsequent economic effects. Studies typically contain some empirical evidence and some theoretical explanations of the data. However, to date limited effort has been posed on systematically reviewing the existing evidence and its implications for policy. This paper contributes to the literature by bringing together a summary of the most recent published evidence on patterns of GMO regulation and their determinants, as well as their economics implications for trade and firms’ global strategy.JRC.J.4 - Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
GMO standards, endogenous policy and the market for information
Get PDFThe paper develops a composite index of GMO standards restrictiveness for 60 countries, assigning objective scores to six different regulatory dimensions. Using this index and its components, we empirically investigate the political and economic determinants of GMO regulations for 55 countries, controlling for spatial autocorrelation. Results show that many of the determinants highlighted in the theoretical literature, such as the structure of the agricultural sector and the institutional environment are important determinants of the restrictiveness of the GMO regulation. As a key result there emerges a prominent role of the market for information, showing that the structure of domestic mass media (public vs. private) is an important driver of GMO standards
GM-free private standards, public regulation of GM products and mass media
Get PDFThe paper analyses the factors inducing retailers to adopt GM-free private standards, using information of 44 retailers operating in 54 countries. Retailers are distinguished between those not using genetically modified (GM) ingredients and those using ingredients which are potentially GM in their private label products. Results from a binary response model show that many of the drivers highlighted in the empirical literature, such as historical factors, communication infrastructure and sectorial conditions, affect the likelihood of adopting GM-free private standards. Moreover, we test additional hypotheses from the political economy of standards formation and of mass media. Key results show that a higher share of government-oriented public media reduces the probability of adopting GM-free private standards, while different GMO public standards between home and operating countries increase this probability
Does Common Agricultural Policy Reduce Farm Labour Migration? A Panel Data Analysis Across EU Regions
No full textThis paper deals with the determinants of labour out-migration from agriculture across
153 EU regions over the 1990-2008 period. The central aim is to shed light on the role
played by CAP payments on this important adjustment process. Using static and dynamic
panel data methods, we show that standard neo-classic drivers, like the relative income
and the relative labour share, represented significant determinants of the inter-sectoral migration of the agricultural labour. Overall, CAP payments have contributed
significantly to job creation in agriculture, although the magnitude of the economic effect is quite small. Moreover, Pillar I subsidies have exerted an effect from three to five times stronger than Pillar II payments
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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