Do food standards affect the quality of EU imports?

This paper investigates the relationship between the diffusion of EU standards and product quality upgrading using highly disaggregated import data to the EU in the food industry. Results show that, on average, the diffusion of EU voluntary standards boosts the rate of quality upgrading. However, th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economics letters 2014-02, Vol.122 (2), p.233-237
Main Authors: Olper, Alessandro, Curzi, Daniele, Pacca, Lucia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Competition
Distance to the frontier
Eastern Europe
EU food standards
European Union
Food industry
Food processing industry
Imports
ISO standards
Product quality
Quality standards
Quality upgrading
Studies
Western Europe
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper investigates the relationship between the diffusion of EU standards and product quality upgrading using highly disaggregated import data to the EU in the food industry. Results show that, on average, the diffusion of EU voluntary standards boosts the rate of quality upgrading. However, the results are heterogeneous when moving from primary to processed foods, and from ISO to non-ISO standards. •We study the relation between the diffusion of food standards and the quality of EU imports.•We find that on average, the diffusion of standards boosts the rate of quality upgrading.•We find heterogeneity considering primary vs. processed products and ISO vs. non-ISO standards.
ISSN:0165-1765
1873-7374
DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2013.11.031