Using a sample of bilateral trade flows across ten developed countries between 1974 and 1995, this article explores the effect of exchange rate uncertainty on the growth of agricultural trade as compared to other sectors. Based on a gravity model that controls for other factors likely to determine bilateral trade, the results show that real exchange rate uncertainty has had a significant negative effect on agricultural trade over this period. Moreover, the negative impact of uncertainty on agricultural trade has been more significant compared to other sectors. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

A model of vertical product differentiation is used to analyze the labeling of credence goods, focusing on the manner by which quality is communicated. The results indicate that firms prefer private labeling options. In addition, firms may hire private certifiers as well as paying for mandated government labels when the government's quality benchmark substantially deviates from firms' private quality choices. The average consumer prefers a mandatory, discrete label with a high-quality standard while poor consumers prefer a mandatory, discrete label with a low standard. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

A model is developed to characterize the vertically linked and concentrated nature of developed-country food markets. This model is then parameterized and used to simulate the effects of varying food market structures on the benefits to developing-country exporters of agricultural commodities from trade liberalization by developed countries. Results demonstrate that even relatively modest departures from perfect competition can cause much of the benefits from trade liberalization to flow to marketing firms instead of producers in the developing country. The distributional effects under downstream market power differ significantly from the perfectly competitive case and may result, somewhat paradoxically, in developing countries receiving a lower share of the total value added within the food chain as trade reform occurs. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

This article reviews literature on competitiveness of agricultural product and input markets. Although researchers in the United States and Europe emphasize different stages of the agricultural and food marketing system, their focus is similar: extent of buyer power, although both have largely ignored the sector supplying inputs to agriculture. The key conclusion is that there is little robust empirical evidence for food processing firms exerting buyer power, and there are limited data concerning vertical contracts between food processing and agriculture, but there is a small body of evidence concerning food retailer behavior and vertical coordination between food retailing and processing.

Since the late‐1980s, empirical analysis has typically analysed the extent of market power in the food industry using structural econometric models drawing on an approach commonly termed the new empirical industrial organisation (NEIO). In this paper, we examine what has been learned from the use of this methodology, and consider whether it has relevance for empirical analysis of market power in food retailing, and the nature of vertical contractual arrangements between food manufacturers and retailers.

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In this paper, constraints on technology choice and credit access are introduced into a firm-level trade model in a dynamic setting in order to explain factors that limit benefits to a firm from trade liberalization. Theoretical analysis shows that firms face credit constraints depending on their initial productivity and the cost of credit. As a result, credit-constrained firms may not be able to cross the minimum productivity threshold needed to enter and compete in a foreign market. Empirical analysis using firm-level panel data for six Latin American countries confirms that financial constraints negatively influence firms' export and investment decisions.