Quality and Export Performance Evidence from Cheese Industry

The paper questions the impact of quality label on firm export competitiveness in the cheese and cream industry. We use firm level data from the French custom and an original dataset of firms and products concerned by protected designations of origin (PDO). Our econometric estimations shows that PDO labelling impacts both the extensive margin (the number of destinations) and the intensive margin of trade (the value of trade), and increases the average export unit value. The role of label in export performance varies with the market of destination and is more important when exporting to EU countries.