There has been a great deal of recent growth in the area of private food quality standards. This article analyses the incentives for setting private quality standards before governments do so. Since food quality standards are generally multifaceted, different types of standards will affect...

Meat retailers express demand for a more uniform product, and technical innovations are allowing an increasingly uniform supply. Packers can promote uniformity through pre-slaughter sorting, or earlier through contracts. Emphasizing effort on the packing line, we develop a model whereby packers...