Title

Quality certification by geographical indications, trademarks and firm reputation

Campus Units

Economics

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Submitted Manuscript

Publication Date

2012

Journal or Book Title

European Review of Agricultural Economics

Volume

39

Issue

4

First Page or Article ID Number

539

Last Page

566

DOI

10.1093/erae/jbr053

Abstract

We develop a reputation model to study the concurrent use of trademarks and certification for food products with a geographical indication (GI). The model extends Shapiro's (1983) approach to modelling reputation to a situation in which two technologies for the production of quality are available, one of which is available only in the GI region. In this setting, trademarks capture firm-specific reputations, whereas GI certification captures a notion of collective reputation. The model shows that GI certification improves the ability of reputation to operate as a mechanism for assuring quality linked to some inherent attributes of a particular production area.

JEL Classification

D23, D82, L14, L15, Q01

Comments

This is a working paper of an article from European Review of Agricultural Economics 39 (2012): 539, doi: 10.1093/erae/jbr053.

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