When are Private Standards more Stringent than Public Standards?
No hay miniatura disponible
Fecha
Autores
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Resumen
Descripción
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. I
develop a political economy model that may contribute to explaining this stylized fact. I
show that if producers exercise their political power to persuade the government to
impose a lower public standard, retailers may apply their market power to install a private
standard at a higher level than the public one.