When consumption heals producers: the effect of fair trade on marginalised producers’ health and productivity

Concerned consumers in the US and Europe are increasingly willing to pay an “ethical premium” for the social and environmental value of fair trade products. One of the fair trade criteria (aimed to enhance wellbeing and capacity building of marginalised producers) relates to producers health and creation of healthy working conditions. We evaluate its significance by comparing days lost for illness of FT and non FT affiliated Kenyan farmers. We find that FT affiliation years have a significant effect in the expected direction on the dependent variable after controlling for selection bias effects.