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Voluntary adoption of environmental standards and limited attention: Evidence from the food and beverage industry in Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Massimo Filippini

    (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich and Universita della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland)

  • Suchita Srinivasan

    (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract

Voluntary approaches to environmental policy can contribute to stemming environmental degradation in developing countries with weak institutions. We evaluate the role of a behavioral anomaly, limited attention paid by owners or managers, in explaining the voluntary adoption of environmental certification by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the food and beverage industry in Vietnam. We find that firms where owners or managers were inattentive were 30 percentage points less likely to receive environmental certification. Moreover, this effect is larger for firms that were previously inspected for technical violations, and that exported or bribed, and it is weaker for household enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Filippini & Suchita Srinivasan, 2020. "Voluntary adoption of environmental standards and limited attention: Evidence from the food and beverage industry in Vietnam," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 20/338, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
  • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:20-338
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    File URL: https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/mtec/cer-eth/cer-eth-dam/documents/working-papers/WP-20-338.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Voluntary environmental standards; Limited attention; Small and medium enterprises; Food and beverage industry; Vietnam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Q59 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Other

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