Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

The Fair Trade movement:an economic perspective

Contents:

Author Info

  • Alexander Kadow

Abstract

Fair Trade (FT) products such as coffee and textiles are becoming increasingly popular with altruistic consumers all over the world. This paper seeks to understand the economic effects of this grassroots movement which directly links ethically-minded consumers in industrialised countries with marginalised producers in developing economies. We extend the Ricardian trade model and introduce a FT sector in developing South that offers a fair wage – the FT premium. There are indeed positive welfare effects from FT but those come at the expense of rising inequalities within South which are in turn a rational by-product of FT. The degree of inequalities depends on the specifics of the cooperative structures in the FT sector. Given the rigidities and inequalities FT introduces and rests upon, this form of alternative trade appears to be only sustainable as niche movement.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_190522_en.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow in its series Working Papers with number 2011_05.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: Feb 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2011_05

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Adam Smith Building, Glasgow G12 8RT
Phone: 0141 330 4618
Fax: 0141 330 4940
Web page: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/research/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Fair Trade; comparative advantage; wage premium; inequalities; ethical consumerism; cooperative;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Maseland, Robbert & Vaal, Albert de, 2001. "How fair is fair trade?," Research Report 01C48, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
  2. Philip Booth & Linda Whetstone, 2007. "Half A Cheer For Fair Trade," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 29-36, 06.
  3. Leonardo Becchetti & Stefano Castriota, 2008. "Is Fair Trade Honey Sweeter? An empirical analysis on the effect of affiliation on productivity," Working Papers 104, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
  4. Fehr, Ernst & Schmidt, Klaus M., 1998. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition and Cooperation," CEPR Discussion Papers 1812, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Kreickemeier, Udo & Nelson, Douglas, 2006. "Fair wages, unemployment and technological change in a global economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 451-469, December.
  6. David Reinstein & Joon Song, 2008. "Efficient Consumer Altruism and Fair Trade," Economics Discussion Papers 651, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
  7. Leonardo Becchetti & Furio Camillo Rosati, 2007. "Global Social Preferences and the Demand for Socially Responsible Products: Empirical Evidence from a Pilot Study on Fair Trade Consumers," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 807-836, 05.
  8. repec:feb:natura:0061 is not listed on IDEAS
  9. Mark Hayes, 2006. "On the efficiency of fair trade," Review of Social Economy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 64(4), pages 447-468.
  10. Sylvaine Poret & Claire Chambolle, 2007. "Fair Trade Labeling: Inside or Outside Supermarkets?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 9.
  11. Chris Arnot & Peter C. Boxall & Sean B. Cash, 2006. "Do Ethical Consumers Care About Price? A Revealed Preference Analysis of Fair Trade Coffee Purchases," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 54(4), pages 555-565, December.
  12. Eriksson, Clas, 2004. "Can green consumerism replace environmental regulation?--a differentiated-products example," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 281-293, September.
  13. Leonardo Becchetti & Benjamin Huybrechts, 2008. "The Dynamics of Fair Trade as a Mixed-form Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(4), pages 733-750, September.
  14. Becchetti, Leonardo & Costantino, Marco, 2008. "The Effects of Fair Trade on Affiliated Producers: An Impact Analysis on Kenyan Farmers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 823-842, May.
  15. Solow, Robert M., 1979. "Another possible source of wage stickiness," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 79-82.
  16. LeClair, Mark S., 2002. "Fighting the Tide: Alternative Trade Organizations in the Era of Global Free Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 949-958, June.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2011_05

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jeanette Findlay).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.