Quality Standards, Value Chains, and International Development: Economic and Political Theory

Over the past decades, the world has witnessed an unprecedented growth in global value chains, propelled by increasingly demanding quality standards. These trends lead to concerns about the impact of value chains on development and poverty and about the possible protectionist nature of quality standards in rich countries. This book offers the first integrated theoretical analysis of the economic and political factors which determine the level of quality standards, as well as their economic effects along the value chain. Using realistic assumptions motivated by empirical research, the theoretical framework in this book makes it possible to study the efficiency effects as well as the distributional consequences of one of the most striking evolutions affecting global trade and development today.

Johan Swinnen is Professor of Economics and Director of the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies and Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. Previously he was Lead Economist at the World Bank and Economic Advisor at the European Commission. He has published widely on political economy, institutional reform, trade, and global value chains. His books include Political Power and Economic Policy, Global Supply Chains, Standards and the Poor, Foreign Direct Investment and Human Development, Private Standards and Global Governance, and From Marx and Mao to the Market.

Koen Deconinck is a senior research affiliate at the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at KU Leuven. Previously he was a visiting researcher at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and at the University of California, Davis. His research has been published in international journals such as Business History, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Food Policy.

Thijs Vandemoortele currently works for Caterpillar Distribution Services Europe and is a senior research affiliate with the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at KU Leuven. Previously he was a visiting researcher at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and at the University of California, Berkeley. His research has been published in The World Trade Review, The World Economy, the European Review of Agricultural Economics, and the Review of Development Economics.

Anneleen Vandeplas works as an economist for the European Commission and is a senior research affiliate with the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at KU Leuven. Previously she was visiting professor at the University of Hasselt and visiting researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (New Delhi). Her work has been published in international journals including the World Bank Economic Review, the Journal of Development Studies, the Journal of Agricultural Economics, and World Development.