The production and consumption of raw materials such as coffee, cocoa and cotton have created extensive but unequal links between the Global North and Global South. The structure and governance of these links have changed over time, but have been determined mainly by a few multinational...

Sustainability standards such as Fairtrade, UTZ, and Rainforest Alliance have recently gained importance in global value chains, with some of the major tropical commodities seeing significant increases in the share of their certified area in the last ten years. This trend is directly related to...

While many studies analyzed effects of sustainability standards - such as Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance - on smallholder farmers in developing countries, most did not sufficiently account for systematic differences between certified and non-certified farmers. Certified farmers are typically...