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Retailer Supply Chain and Market Access: Evidence From French Agri‐food Firms Certified with Private Standards
Author(s) -
Latouche Karine,
ChevassusLozza Emmanuelle
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/twec.12191
Subject(s) - certification , productivity , sample (material) , business , industrial organization , supply chain , european union , economics , commerce , marketing , international trade , economic growth , chemistry , management , chromatography
This paper explores an original data set identifying F rench agri‐food firms certified with two E uropean private standards: the I nternational F ood S tandard and/or the B ritish R etail C onsortium standard ( BRC ). Certified firms complying with such requirements are able to supply some E uropean retailers with products sold under their retailers' own private label. Our analysis revealed that certified firms were among the biggest and most productive firms in the sample. Then, based on recent developments in international economics, we propose a modification of C haney's model and estimations to test for the hypothesis that entering retailer networks reduces export costs faced by certified firms to access E uropean union ( EU ) markets. After controlling for size and productivity effects, model estimations show that French firms who adopt BRC and enter the corresponding network benefit from better access through a significant decrease in their entry costs to certain EU markets.