Séminaire

Quality Certification by Geographical Indications,Trademarks and Firm Reputation

Luisa Menapace (University of Trento)

10 janvier 2011, 11h00–12h30

Toulouse

Salle MF 323

Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization Seminar

Résumé

We develop a reputation model to study the concurrent use of trademarks and certification for food products with a regional identity, known as geographical indications (GIs). The model extends Shapiro’s (1983) approach to modeling 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 and has a cost advantage for the production of higher quality levels. In this setting, trademarks capture firmspecific 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 when it is linked to some inherent attributes of a particular production area. We discuss some welfare implications of introducing GI certification and show that an EU-style sui generis GI certification is preferable to the US-style approach based on certification marks.

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