We assess the literature on public and private quality standards and their impact in food markets, international trade … protectionism, a complicate task. We look at studies investigating public and private standards and across various quantitative … approaches and countries. These standards have complex effects. The evidence is mixed regarding standards as catalyst for or …

about how they can be effectively governed, especially in transnational domains. Governance of transitions is often … constrained by the equivocality of sustainability goals, the idiosyncrasy of niche experiments and the multiplicity of governance … sustainability transitions within a transnational sector. Our case is the global coffee sector where ‘sustainability standards' are …