Exploring linkages between Consumer Food Co-operatives and Domestic Fair Trade in the United States

Tensions Between Firm Size and Sustainability Goals: Fair Trade Coffee in the United States

Sustainability marketing trends have typically been led by smaller, more mission-driven firms, but are increasingly attracting larger, more profit-driven firms. Studying the strategies of firms that are moving away from these two poles (i.e., mission-driven but larger firms, and profit-driven firms that are more committed to sustainability) may help us to better understand the potential to reso...

Trade and Food Security: Conceptualizing the Linkages

Efficient Consumer Altruism and Fair Trade

Consumers have shown a willingness to pay a premium for products labeled as “Fair Trade,” and to prefer retailers that are seen as more generous to their suppliers/employees. A fair trade product is essentially a bundle of a base product and a donation to the supplier (e.g., a coffee farmer). An altruistic rational consumer will only choose this bundle if doing so is less expensive than buying ...

Efficient Consumer Altruism and Fair Trade Products∗

Yearly sales of “fair trade” products exceeds $2.3 billion worldwide. Consumers who are altruistic and rational will choose these product-donation bundles when the bundle is cheaper than its elements. Assume a supplier’s investment reduces retailers’ costs (or improves quality), but this investment is non-verifiable, hence sub-optimal even with infinitely-repeated interaction. A retailer paying...

Health System Reform in the United States

In 2010, the United States adopted its first-ever comprehensive set of health system reforms in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Implementation of the law, though politically contentious and controversial, has now reached a stage where reversal of most elements of the law is no longer feasible. The controversial portions of the law that expand affordable health insurance coverage to most U.S. cit...