Through the justice principles –equality, time, status, need, efficiency and worth– developed by Jon Elster, we show in this article how fair trade certification for producers is legitimatised by stakeholders. Based on a field investigation with coffee growers in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia...

This paper argues that fair trade schemes in the quinoa market of south Bolivia are not an effective instrument to reduce social inequalities. Beyond the façade of fair trade marks and labels, the reality of Bolivia points to an important way in which customer expectations are disappointed.

Certain transnational social movements militate for the respect of social and environmental norms, in particular in countries with low wages. To this aim, they have developed new instruments like labels and codes of conduct. These instruments are designed to support and reinforce the social and...

In fisheries, eco-labels have been seen as a means to enhance productivity and the economic value of fisheries, while at the same time respecting and promoting marine biodiversity conservation. This paper presents the principal labels of the fishing industry and the challenges associated with...

The Brazilian Amazon is one of the world’s largest tropical forests. It supplies more than 80 % of Brazil’s timber production and makes this nation the second largest producer of tropical wood. The forestry sector is of major importance in terms of economic production and employment...

According to a canonical conception of rationality, consumers’ behavior results from given preferences. In environmental economics, the ecological sensibility of consumers so takes the shape of a green preference integrated into the utility function. Economics of conventions relaxes the...

Diagnoses of market failures are used to justify government cooperation, but government regulations have their own costs. Economists debate whether market arrangements may be superior despite their imperfections. As I shall argue in this brief essay, the terms of this debate are misleading. When...

The psychosocial definition of attitude is a mental state predisposing one to act in a certain manner when the situation implies the real or symbolic presence of the object of attitude, hence the recurring effort to evaluate this bond which exists between verbal answers and acts. The author...

We consider the following question: does market failure justify redistribution? We argue that the general answer to this question is no, in the sense that policies for correcting market failures do not aim at producing a "desirable" income distribution. This follows from the fact that, by...

How can one rationally imagine the strategies of threat if one wishes to influence the actions of others? In this paper, the author attempts to show that threats of coercion do not function in dual situations without a social context. He shows that they only function if one adds social elements...