Harmonization of technical standards is often advocated as a means to remove technical barriers that reduce the welfare gains available from international trade. Organic standards are not currently harmonized internationally. If domestic organic standards reflect consumer tastes, and consumers...

This article introduces the special section on consumers and trust. It discusses how the concept of trust has been treated in the literature and identifies concepts of institutional trust and generalized trust that permeate much of the trust literature. An introduction to the five papers in the...