Consumer preferences for country‐of‐origin,geographical indication, and protecteddesignation of origin labels

Motivated by the recognition that geography is often correlated with, or an importantdeterminant of, the overall quality of agricultural products, consumer groups, industryrepresentatives, and domestic and trade representatives have increasingly considered thepotential role of geographical origin labels as consumer information and marketing tools.We investigate whether consumers recognize and value the informational content of avariety of nested geographical origin labels. In particular, this study disentangles andassesses three nested types of origin labels: country of origin (COOL), geographicalindications (GI), and PDO/PGI. We find that, within the context of a high quality valueaddedcommodity such as extra virgin olive oil, consumers' willingness to pay variesacross different countries of origin, and that within a country consumers have a greaterwillingness to pay for GI-labeled than non-GI labeled products. We also find evidencethat consumers value PDOs more than PGIs, but the result is not as strong as that foundfor GI versus non-GI. Overall, our findings support the recent surge in interest by bothdeveloped and developing nations in reaching an agreement for stricter and morewidespread protection of GIs within ongoing WTO discussions and harnessing them asmarketing tools for expanding shares in export markets.[...]