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GMO standards, endogenous policy and the market for information

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  • Vigani, Mauro
  • Olper, Alessandro

Abstract

The paper develops a composite index of GMO standards restrictiveness for 60 countries, assigning objective scores to six different regulatory dimensions. Using this index and its components, we empirically investigate the political and economic determinants of GMO regulations for 55 countries, controlling for spatial autocorrelation. Results show that many of the determinants highlighted in the theoretical literature, such as the structure of the agricultural sector and the institutional environment are important determinants of the restrictiveness of the GMO regulation. As a key result there emerges a prominent role of the market for information, showing that the structure of domestic mass media (public vs. private) is an important driver of GMO standards.

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  • Vigani, Mauro & Olper, Alessandro, 2013. "GMO standards, endogenous policy and the market for information," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 32-43.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:43:y:2013:i:c:p:32-43
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.08.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Alessandro Olper & Johan Swinnen, 2013. "Mass Media and Public Policy: Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(3), pages 413-436.
    2. de Faria, Rosane Nunes & Wieck, Christine, 2014. "Measuring The Extent Of Gmo Asynchronous Approval Using Regulatory Dissimilarity Indices: The Case Of Maize And Soybean," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182796, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Chang, Ching-Wen & Yamanaka, Takayuki & Kano, Shingo, 2019. "An enforced loop-out knowledge flow facilitates industry competition: Learning from the pharmaceutical and genetically modified seed industries," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 11-24.
    4. Richard Danvers Smart & Matthias Blum & Justus Wesseler, 2016. "Trends in Genetically Engineered Crops' Approval Times in the United States and the European Union," Economics Working Papers 16-03, Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
    5. de Faria, Rosane Nunes & Wieck, Christine, 2015. "Empirical evidence on the trade impact of asynchronous regulatory approval of new GMO events," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 22-32.
    6. Olper, Alessandro, 2017. "The political economy of trade-related regulatory policy: environment and global value chain," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 5(3), February.
    7. Wynn, Katherine & Spangenberg, German & Smith, Kevin & Wilson, William, 2017. "Valuing Genetically Modified Traits in Canola Using Real Options," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 42(2), May.
    8. Zilberman, David & Kaplan, Scott & Gordon, Ben, 2018. "The political economy of labeling," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 6-13.
    9. Richard D. Smart & Matthias Blum & Justus Wesseler, 2017. "Trends in Approval Times for Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States and the European Union," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 182-198, February.
    10. Herath, Deepananda, 2013. "Evolving Consumer Acceptance of Biotechnology Applications in Canada: Evidence from the Public Opinion Surveys in 2001 (fifth wave) and 2011 (seventh wave)," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150525, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Pierre Fauvet & Sébastien Rouillon, 2016. "Would you trust lobbies?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 201-219, June.
    12. White, Robin R. & Brady, Michael, 2014. "Can consumers’ willingness to pay incentivize adoption of environmental impact reducing technologies in meat animal production?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 41-49.
    13. Taghouti, Ibtissem1 & Garcia-Alvarez-Coque, Jose Maria & Martinez-Gomez, Victor, 2017. "Implications Of Changing Aflatoxin Standards For EU Border Controls On Nut Imports," 2017 International Congress, August 28-September 1, 2017, Parma, Italy 260824, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Katja Pietrzyck & Nora Berke & Vanessa Wendel & Julia Steinhoff-Wagner & Sebastian Jarzębowski & Brigitte Petersen, 2021. "Understanding the Importance of International Quality Standards Regarding Global Trade in Food and Agricultural Products: Analysis of the German Media," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, April.
    15. Van Acker, Rene & Cici, S. Zahra H. & Lohuis, Michael & Ryan, Camille & Sachs, Eric, 2015. "Gaining Societal Acceptance of Biotechnology: The Case for Societal Engagement," GMCC-15: Seventh GMCC, November 17-20, 2015, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 211639, International Conference on Coexistence between Genetically Modified (GM) and non-GM based Agricultural Supply Chains (GMCC).
    16. Ufer, Danielle J. & Ortega, David L. & Wolf, Christopher A. & McKendree, Melissa & Swanson, Janice, 2022. "Getting past the gatekeeper: Key motivations of dairy farmer intent to adopt animal health and welfare-improving biotechnology," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    17. Tatjana Brankov & Bojan Matkovski & Marija Jeremić & Stanislav Zekić, 2022. "GMO standards in South East Europe: assessing a GMO index within the process of EU integration," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 253-275, February.
    18. Jose‐Maria Garcia‐Alvarez‐Coque & Ibtissem Taghouti & Victor Martinez‐Gomez, 2020. "Changes in Aflatoxin Standards: Implications for EU Border Controls of Nut Imports," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3), pages 524-541, September.
    19. Kjersti Nes & K. Aleks Schaefer & Daniel P. Scheitrum, 2022. "Global Food Trade and the Costs of Non‐Adoption of Genetic Engineering," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 70-91, January.
    20. Hielscher, Stefan & Pies, Ingo & Valentinov, Vladislav & Chatalova, Lioudmila, 2016. "Rationalizing the GMO debate: The ordonomic approach to addressing agricultural myths," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 1-10.
    21. Carter, Colin Andre & Schaefer, K. Aleks, 2018. "GE Labeling Laws and Segmentation of the Sugar Market," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273855, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    22. McCluskey, Jill J. & Swinnen, Johan & Vandemoortele, Thijs, 2015. "You get what you want: A note on the economics of bad news," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 1-5.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    GMO standards; Political economy; Media market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • Q16 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Biofuels; Agricultural Extension Services
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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