We studied the protectionist character of a minimum quality standard (MQS). We show that in the fixed cost model where two firms, one local and one foreign, compete in a local market, the implementation of a MQS on the local market is a protectionist political only if the local firm supplies the...

In this paper, we analyze cases where consumers are aware of the existence of two qualities but do not know which firm sells the good one. We show that if the production of the high quality requires higher cost, its producer may be severly disadvantaged, even if the additional utility fully...

La littérature économique s'accorde pour dire que les qualités offertes sur un marché en concurrence imparfaite ne sont pas socialement optimales. En revanche, il existe un désaccord imporotant sur les issues d'une réglementation prenant la forme d'un standard de qualité minimale (SQM)....