Elinor Benami, University of California, Davis
The Producer Response to Eco-certification: Evidence from Coffee in the Brazilian Cerrado
Date and Location
Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
ARE Library Conference Room, 4101
Social Sciences and Humanities
Abstract
In the last decades, certification programs have proliferated across the world, aiming to differentiate consumer goods based on otherwise unobserved social or environmental features of their production. Although studies on certifications employing price floors suggest they rarely enhance producer incomes once net of their costs, previous research has suggested that standards can more effectively support farmer income through influencing production, e.g., improving processing practices and/or supporting quality upgrades. As one test of the evidence on these claims, this study examines the quality and quantity of coffee supplied from 504 farms to a major Brazilian cooperative from 2008-2016, during which time 75 farms obtained the Rainforest Alliance certification. Employing an identification strategy that exploits variation in cooperative-assessed quality across years for each farm and supported by evidence from over 100 field surveys, we find the once-certified farms exhibit modest gains in quality without demonstrating a quantity tradeoff. We consider the channels through which this result occurs and outline implications for the ongoing merger of two large certification programs.
Subscribe to Upcoming Seminars
Click here to receive weekly notice of all upcoming seminars via email.
Individual seminar and workshop announcements are circulated via separate mailing lists. To subscribe, send an email to the relevant list:
- Click here to subscribe to the Departmental Seminars.
- Click here to subscribe to the Agricultural Economics Workshop.
- Click here to subscribe to the Development Workshop.
- Click here to subscribe to the Econometrics Seminars.
- Click here to subscribe to the Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop and the Environmental and Energy Economics Workshop.
Contact Us
2116 Social Sciences and HumanitiesUniversity of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Main Office: 530-752-1515
Student Advising Services: 530-754-9536
DeLoach Conference Room: 530-752-2916
Main Conference Room: 530-754-1850