Research

The Role of Private Standards for Manufactured Food Exports from Developing Countries

In this paper, the author examines the trade impact of private standards on exports of manufactured food products. A database covers information from about 12,000 food manufacturing companies from 88 countries – including 53 developing countries — that are certified with retailer-based International Featured Standard (IFS). Using a dynamic gravity model for the period 2008 to 2013 and find that IFS certifications are significantly positively correlated with exports suggesting that private standards certifications push exports of manufactured food products. Controlling for geographical distance and common language and other trade related variables, we find that standards certifications have the largest impact for European countries, followed by American and Asian countries.

The paper is available from the ResearchGate website.

Author: Axel Mangelsdorf, Technische Universität Berlin