This paper analyzes the extent to which the reduction of import tariffs – as a measure of import competition – affects the rate of quality upgrading in the agri-food sector. This relation is studied using highly disaggregated EU-15 import data from more than 70 countries in thousands of food...

Developing the capacity to assess and chart trends in the sustainability of farming and food production is becoming increasingly more important as agriculture strives to produce more food while minimising the risk to the natural environment. The multi-faceted nature of sustainability is...

Melitz and Ottaviano’s (2008) firm heterogeneity model predicts that trade liberalization induces a selection process from low to high productivity firms, that translates into an industry productivity growth. A similar firms’ selection effect is induced by market size. These predictions are...

The aim of this contribution is to study empirically the effect of trade liberalization on productivity growth exploiting a large micro-dataset of more than 20,000 French and Italian food firms, over the 2004-2012 period. This relationship has been studied focusing on import penetration at both...

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for...

The traditional food supply chain is arranged as a complex array of producers, handlers, processors, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. As the food supply chain grew in complexity over time, little emphasis was placed on reserving information regarding the origin of raw materials and...

Seven trends that emerge in the new global economy will be identified followed by a discussion of how they evolved and what they imply for public policy and for various types of firms and consumers. Some have called it the "brave new world" of food production and consumption. Some dislike what...

Under the new WTO trading rules the United States is obligated to revise its beef import policy and has proposed barriers based on classifying nations according to livestock health risks. This research develops a model which captures the impact of various degrees of FMD risk from imports on...