https://hdl.handle.net/10419/74826 Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:11:05 GMT 2026-10-06T12:11:05Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/297793 Title: Quantifying consumer taste in trade: Evidence from the food industry Authors: Aw, Bee-yan; Lee, Yi; Vandenbussche, Hylke Abstract: This paper develops an empirical model of consumer taste in twenty-nine Belgium food industries for the period from 1998-2005 to generate a "taste distance" measure of over 1,800 firm-product exports to 53 country destinations. We estimate consumer taste using a control function approach and perform a decomposition of export revenues of firm-products to establish the importance of representative consumer taste relative to quality and marginal cost in export success. We find substantial taste heterogeneity in food exports across destination countries. Overall, in the large majority of food exports, consumer taste is an important and separate demand determinant to explain export revenues. Depending on the product, taste for a product explains between 4-30% of export revenues. Thus, any taste shock due to events such as pandemics or climate change, may induce substantial changes in export profitability of firms. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/297793 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267925 Title: Healthy food traditions? Nutritional quality and food composition of EU geographical indications Authors: Höhn, Gero Laurenz; Huysmans, Martijn; Crombez, Christophe Abstract: The EU Green Deal aims to promote healthier diets that include more nutritious and natural foods instead of ultra-processed products. EU geographical indications (GIs) protecting traditional foods such as Roquefort cheese or Parma ham will be reinforced under the corresponding 'Farm to Fork Strategy'. Although several GI producers advertise their products as artisanal and healthy, little is known yet about whether GI foods can actually contribute to these EU policy ambitions. Therefore, we examine the nutritional quality and food composition of GIs compared to non-GIs. We base our analysis on extensive open-access data of more than 6,000 cheeses and prepared meats marketed in France including about 1,200 products regulated under 79 different GIs. We find that GIs are associated with lower overall nutritional quality based on the Nutri-Score metric, which has become one of the major candidates for harmonised nutritional labelling in the EU. Thus, future GI specifications may allow for innovative reformulations towards healthier alternatives of local food traditions. Second, our probit regressions indicate that GIs tend to be less likely to be ultra-processed and to contain food additives. However, this seems to be truer for protected designations of origin (PDOs) with typically stricter provisions than protected geographical indications (PGIs). Hence, more harmonised rules on additives could be considered to foster the natural character of GIs and consistency across PDOs and PGIs. Finally, a revised Nutri-Score may also account for the use of additives. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267925 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/297792 Title: By object or by effect? The collusive potential of first refusal contracts Authors: Van Cayseele, Patrick; Bovin, Andreas Abstract: This article examines the collusive potential of first refusal contracts, which are contracts that grant one party, the buyer, a right of first refusal on the output of another party, the seller. When two parties enter into this type of contract, the seller is obligated to offer any output she wishes to sell to the buyer first. It is only after a 'first refusal' by the buyer that output can be offered to third parties. We compare the outcomes which arise under first refusal contracts with those resulting from explicit cooperation. Our findings suggest that these contracts can result in an identical distortion of competition, while remaining under the radar of antitrust authorities. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/297792 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267920 Title: Market power and the volatility of markups in the food value chain: The role of Italian cooperatives Authors: Lee, Hyejin; Swinnen, Johan F. M.; Van Cayseele, Patrick Abstract: Agricultural cooperatives have often been promoted as a way to increase their market power and to obtain stability of profit against uncertainty. This paper estimates the firm-level markups and markup volatility to identify the countervailing market power of cooperatives in the Italian fruits and vegetable sector and the dairy sector. We use the firm-level data of Italian firms for the period 2007-2014. We find that, overall, there is a tradeoff in cooperatives' role between obtaining market power and stability. Farmer cooperatives in both sectors gain stability in their markups but their markups are lower, on average, than those for non-cooperatives. For processor cooperatives, the fruits and vegetable sector obtains more market power. This appears to arise from the product differentiation strategy of the processors cooperative. Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267920 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z