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Geographical Indicators

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Title: Geographical Indicators


1
Geographical Indicators
  • Daniel Pick
  • Economic Research Service

2
What is Champagne?
  • Champagne, a sparkling wine, comes from the
    Champagne region of France. Champagne has
    produced sparkling wine since the days of the
    Roman empire, and still bottles some of the best
    vintages in the world.
  • (www.cnn.com/FOOD/specials/1999/champagne)

3
What is feta cheese?
  • Feta is a classic and famous Greek curd cheese
    whose tradition dates back thousands of years.
    Strictly speaking, real feta cheese is produced
    exclusively in Greece. (www.greekproducts.com).

4
What do these commodities have in common?
  • Both are associated with a particular region or
    countrybut, these products are produced in
    other countries as well
  • Each has a generic name
  • The EU proposed a list of GIs to be protected in
    the WTO trade negotiations

5
Todays discussion
  • A closer look at GIs
  • The economics around GIs
  • Policies used
  • Existing studies
  • Governments role

6
What is a Geographical Indicator (GI)?
  • Indicators which identify agood as
    originating in the territory of a Member, or a
    region or locality in that Territory, where a
    given quality, reputation, or other charac-
    teristic of the good is essentially attributable
    to its geographical origin
  • --Article 22 of the TRIP Agreement

7
Why the interest in GI?
  • Geographical indicators provide the opportunity
    to
  • Differentiate a product
  • Create market power (financial opportunity)
  • Have government policy intervention
  • Transfer income (rural development)

8
What is the economic justification for GI?
  • The rationale behind GI is
  • Market failure Consumers can't distinguish
    between qualities
  • Information failure Consumers are not informed.
    Suboptimal equilibrium resulting from information
    failure may be improved through various
    institutions
  • Warranties
  • Certification
  • Signaling and reputation

9
Three types of goods
  • The economic literature differentiates between
    three types of goods depending on how their
    quality characteristics are identified
  • Search goods
  • Experience goods
  • Credence goods

10
Types of policies
  • Policies instituted to help consumers identify
    the quality characteristics of a product
  • U.S. Certification
  • EU PDO and PGI
  • Protection of Designations of Origin (PDO)
  • Protection of Geographical Indication (PGI)

11
Types of policies, contd
  • EU policy to protect specific agricultural
    commodities
  • Protection is based on geographical origin
  • Regulation No. 2081/92 on the protection of PGI
    and PDO

12
Purpose of Regulation No. 2081/92
  • To recognize, protect, and foster trade among
    Member States of PGI and PDO products to secure
    higher income for farmers in return for improved
    quality
  • Hundreds of products are covered under this
    regulation

13
PDO and PGI brand names by product class
14
Approved PDO and PGI brand names in the EU
15
Existing studies
  • Loureiro McCluskey (2000)
  • Consumers willingness to pay for PGI labeling
  • Galician veal in Spain
  • PGI label effective in high quality meat only
  • Bonnet Simioni (2001)
  • Consumer response to PDO labeling
  • Camembert cheese
  • Consumers do not seem to value PDO label

16
Existing studies, contd
  • Zago Pick (2004)
  • The regulation creates two goods
  • High quality good under the regulation
  • Low quality good not included in the program

17
Existing studies, contd
  • Results from Zago Pick
  • If administrative costs are high, quality
    differences small, and costs differences high
    then we can obtain negative welfare effects
  • With supply restrictions, after the regulation,
    the higher the quality differences, the larger
    the negative impact on consumers surplus and the
    larger positive impact on high-quality producers

18
Existing studies, contd
  • Results from Zago Pick (contd)
  • Effects of the regulation depend on
  • Difference in quality
  • Costs of producing the quality
  • Cost of administration

19
What is the government role?
  • Several costs and benefits are associated with
    labeling policies (Gardner 2003)
  • Benefits
  • Protection of consumers from low quality
    products
  • Reducing consumers search costs
  • Reduction of sellers costs by having uniform
    labeling requirements
  • Gains to producers of high quality products

20
What is the government role? contd
  • Costs
  • Exclusion of low quality products
  • Possible barrier to food innovation
  • Sellers increased costs of labeling
  • Government costs of implementation
  • Creation of market power

21
The bottom line
  • The welfare effects of PDO and PGI must be
    evaluated on a case-by-case
  • Providing blanket policy is not necessarily
    optimal
  • Market distortions may be created by the policy
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