Publications > Cahiers (English)> N° 65, 2th term 2002

• Quality assurance and pork exports : a case study in Denmark, E.S. RÖNNBERG, L.J. UNNEVEHR, M.A. MAZZOCCO
  
• Signes de qualité et qualité des signes : une application au marché du camembert,
  D. HASSAN, S. MONIER-DILHAN
  [Quality labels and labels quality : an application to the market for camembert]
  

  Réflexions à propos du Handbook of Agricultural Economics
  texte au format PDF

• Présentation du dossier

• Review of Book 1 of the Handbook of Agricultural Economics, M. KEYZER

• En lisant le Tome 1 du Handbook of Agricultural Economics, J.-M. BOUSSARD
  

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M. FUJITA, P. KRUGMAN et A. VENABLES, The Spatial Economy : Cities, Regions and International Trade , by C. Gaigné and F. Goffette-Nagot

Quality assurance and pork exports : a case study in Denmark

Elise S. RÖNNBERG*, Laurian J. UNNEVEHR**, Michael A. MAZZOCCO** (* Sustainable Enterprise Solutions, Stockholm, Sweden - e-mail : elise@naturekonomi.se - ** Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, 326 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801, USA - e-mail : laurian@uiuc.edu - mmazzocc@uiuc.edu)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 65, 2002, pp 5-21

Summary -The Danish pork industry’s structure and quality assurance are examined to understand the key elements contributing to its success, as measured by the ability to compete in multiple export markets both within and outside the EU. Quality assurance includes food safety, meat quality, animal welfare, and environmental impact. A basic level of quality is guaranteed through farm to table management for all Danish pigs, but some export markets require additional quality elements. The industry is cooperatively owned and vertically integrated, which makes it easier to monitor quality and to provide price incentives for quality throughout the chain. Quality assurance is managed and monitored through cooperation between industry and government. The Danish pork industry faces two trade-offs in designing future strategy : a) balancing added costs with added quality and b) balancing uniform quality with additional product differentiation. Although other exporting countries are facing increased pressures to assure quality, the unique combination of social and structural elements embodied in the Danish pork system will make it difficult for other countries to achieve the same degree of quality assurance.

Key-words : quality assurance, industry strategy, pork, Denmark.

Signes de qualité et qualité des signes : une application au marché du camembert
[Quality labels and labels quality : an application to the market for camembert]

Daniel HASSAN*, Sylvette MONIER-DILHAN* (* INRA, Unité d’économie et sociologie rurales, BP 27, Auzeville, 31326 Castanet Tolosan Cedex - e-mail : hassan@toulouse.inra.fr - monier@toulouse.inra.fr)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 65, 2002, pp 23-36

Summary - Several quality labels may co-exist on a same product : national brand or private label, and Protected Designation of Origin label (PDO) or not. In this paper, we focus on how this situation affects consumers’willingness to pay for labels. A hedonic price equation is estimated using scanner data set on purchases of French Camembert cheese. The willingness to pay is expressed as a function of PDO label, national brand, store label, the kind of store… One finds that labels valuation obeys the decreasing returns principle : the willingness to pay is higher when the PDO label is associated with a store brand (low quality) rather than with a national brand (high quality).

Key-words : quality, brand proliferation, willingness to pay, Protected Designation of Origin label.

Review of Book 1 of the Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Michiel KEYZER* (* Centre for World Food Studies (SOW-VU), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 65, 2002, pp 40-49

Summary - Most of the chapters of the Book 1 report on empirical findings of cross sectional or panel estimates for farm or household models, occasionally of sector models. These models generally conform to profit or utility maximization, often using duality theory. The authors emphasize that heterogeneity of commodities and households should duly be accounted for. They point to the recurrent problems of endogeneity of explanatory variables, call for adequate testing of rational expectations hypothesis, the identification of credit constraints, and imperfections in the price transmission from consumer to producer. The Handbook offers thorough and extensive surveys of literature, more than it gives guidelines or techniques for research. The upcoming Book 2 will expectedly describe the role of agriculture in a wider economic setting, but within this Book 1, because the editors do not include linking sections that cross reference between chapters, it is left to the reader to identify the role and place of the various chapters in the field of agricultural economics and agriculture in general. As agricultural production and technical change are now discussed without reference to biological potentials, feed balances and land balances, it seems that the field has lost much of its interdisciplinary
inspiration. This is regrettable.

Key-words : agricultural economics, production, marketing, distribution, consommation.

En lisant le Tome 1 du Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Jean-Marc BOUSSARD* (* INRA-CIRAD, 45 bis avenue de la Belle Gabrielle, 94736 Nogent-sur-Marne cedex)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 65, 2002, pp 50-64

Summary - The recent publication of a " Handbook of Agricultural Economics " is a good new for the agricultural economic profession. It stands as both a useful tool and a token of recognition for the contribution to knowledge. Yet, as a general picture of our colleagues'activities, it raises the question of the permanent validity of the forty-yearold Leontief's flattering appraisal regarding agricultural economics : did they not give allegiance to general economists to the point of taking back all their worse habits, while leaving out their own field, and forgetting the true specificity of agriculture, as well as the very nature of economic phenomenon present in this field ?

Key-words: agricultural economics, production, marketing, distribution, consommation.