Jean-Marie Baland

Thematic seminars
Development and political economy seminar

Jean-Marie Baland

Université de Namur
‘Made in Dignity’: the redistributive impact of Fair Trade
Joint with
Cédric Duprez, Wouter Gelade, Francois Woitrin
Venue

MEGA Salle Carine Nourry

MEGA - Salle Carine Nourry

Maison de l'économie et de la gestion d'Aix
424 chemin du viaduc
13080 Aix-en-Provence

Date(s)
Friday, April 25 2025| 11:00am to 12:15pm
Contact(s)

Timothée Demont: timothee.demont[at]univ-amu.fr
Habiba Djebbari: habiba.djebbari[at]univ-amu.fr

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a model of North-South trade to investigate the impact of Fair Trade. In the absence of a label, Southern producers are exploited by monopsonisitic traders who export to Northern markets. The Fair Trade label certifies the adoption of high labour standards and the payment of fair prices to producers in the South. We first show that the label is never Pareto-improving: the welfare of unlabeled producers in the South falls if and only if the welfare of Northern consumers increases. An expansion of Fair Trade tends to exacerbate those effects. We also show that the consequences of fair trade are systematically dampened in environments where traders enjoy more market power.

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