Consumers have increasing demands for product standards. This has important implications for development. This paper develops a firmal theory of the process of the introduction of high product standards in developing countries. The model endogenizes the introduction of high standards. Initial...

Only a few years ago the widely shared view was that low food prices were a curse to developing countries and the poor. The dramatic increase of food prices in 2006-2008 appears to have fundamentally altered this view. The vast majority of analyses and reports in 2008 and 2009 state that high...

This paper develops a firmal theory of the endogenous process of the introduction of high quality products in developing countries. Initial differences in income and capital and transaction costs are shown to affect the emergence of and the size of the high quality economy. Initial differences...