Over the last several decades, voluntary certification programs have become a key approach to promote sustainable supply chains for agricultural commodities. These programs provide premiums and other benefits to producers for adhering to environmental and labor practices established by the certifyin...

The resurgence of the debate on standardization of labor laws via trade has brought into focus the importance of labeling programs, which are seen as a desirable avenue to remedy weak labor laws in the “South.” This study aims to quantify the impact of the Fairtrade labeling program on the welfare p...

This article explores the outcomes of Fair Trade for producers, artisans and their organisations. It asks the question, ‘what happens to people who are involved in Fair Trade?’, and reviews the case studies and empirical research conducted on Fair Trade for a range of products in different countries...

We analyse the impact of fair trade (FT) affiliation on monetary and non-monetary measures of well-being in a sample of Kenyan farmers. Our descriptive and econometric findings document significant differences in terms of varieties of products sold, price satisfaction, monthly household food consump...

This article provides an integrated theoretical and empirical strategy for exploring the impacts of three changes in Mexico (namely changing economic opportunities, migration and conditional cash transfers) on secondary school attainment. Relevant to our review is the discussion of the expansion of...

Alternative trade organizations (ATOs) based on philosophies of social justice and/or environmental well-being are establishing new channels of trade and marketing. Partisans promote ATOs as systems to transfer benefits from consumers in the wealthy northern hemisphere to producers in the poor south...

Fair Trade certification may have important social effects on small-scale producers but empirical evidence is limited. We conducted logistic regressions using data from a 2009 survey of Rwandan coffee farmers to estimate the link between Fair Trade and social capital—measured as farmer trust and par...

This study looks at the experiences of seven coffee producer cooperatives in Latin America with Fair Trade certification, and the benefits they received. Through comparative analysis, the authors find that coffee organizations, communities and producers derive important material and non-material ...

We evaluate the impact of Fair Trade (FT) affiliation on child schooling within a sample of Chilean honey producers with a retrospective panel data approach. From a theoretical point of view, we argue that FT should have a positive effect on child schooling since it generates a short-run pure income...

Worker welfare and employment conditions in the agri-food-producing and processing sectors in the global south have become an increasing concern for consumers. Sustainability standards, such as Fairtrade, play an important role in agri-food markets of horticultural produce and may be a tool to addre...

Fair Trade is a labeling initiative aimed at improving the lives of the poor in developing countries by offering better terms to producers and helping them to organize. Although Fair Trade–certified products still comprise a small share of the market—for example, Fair Trade–certified coffee exports ...

We provide a review of sustainable coffee certifications and results from a quantitative analysis of the effects of Fair Trade, organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifications on the livelihood strategies of 469 households and 18 cooperatives of Central America and Mexico. Certified household...

This paper analyzes the possibilities and challenges of Fair Trade certification as a movement seeking to improve the well-being of small-scale coffee growers and coffee laborers in the global South. Six months of fieldwork was conducted in 2005–2006 to study the roles of a wide range of farmers, la...

Millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries participate in different types of sustainability standards. A growing body of literature has analyzed the welfare effects, with mixed results. Yet, there are important knowledge gaps. First, most existing studies have looked at the effects of o...

This study looks at the impact of Fairtrade on labour rights using a case study in the flower production undustry in Ecuador. The analysis highlights how tensions between the traditional market (rooted in competition, efficiency and standardization) and alternative domestic and civil conventions ...