Retailers' private standards are increasingly important in addressing consumer concerns about safety, quality and social and environmental issues. Empirical evidence shows that these private standards are frequently more stringent than their public counterparts. This article develops a political...

Despite the growing importance of geographical indications (GI), relatively little attention has been devoted to studying the optimal size of a GI region, as well as how lobbying by interest groups may affect the actual size. We develop a political economy model of the size of geographical...

So, you've decided to do a PhD… now what? In this essay, I provide some advice for beginning PhD students – basically sharing with you what I would tell my younger self. Doing a PhD is a transformative experience, but the process is challenging – not merely on an intellectual level but...

Food systems are expected to provide food security and nutrition, to contribute to the livelihoods of millions, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable way. The broad outlines of these challenges are clear, and in many cases evidence exists on how better policies can improve the...

Almost half of the world's vineyards are in the EU and the EU produces around 60% of the world's wine. The EU is also the world's most regulated wine market. In 2007, the European Union decided on a major reform of its wine policy, the so-called Common Market Organization (CMO) for wine. A...

We provide the first quantitative analysis to scrutinize the ample ethnographic evidence that magico-religious beliefs affect the demand for conventional healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. We rely on the unique case of Benin, where Voodoo-adherence is freely reported, and varies greatly within...

This report provides a conceptual foundation for the analysis of international regulatory co-operation (IRC) and its potential benefits through reduced trade costs. Different forms of IRC aiming to reduce specification, conformity assessment and information costs - which can arise from...