Framework for economic impact assessment of production standards and empirical evidence.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter outlines a framework for the impact assessment of production standards including an outline of potential impact pathways. Its main example is Kenyan horticulture and the private process standard GlobalGAP, but it also draws on other standards. The chapter links changes potentially triggered by standard introduction to methodological challenges associated with impact assessment and attribution in the context of a dynamic setting (changes over time), and a multidimensional (direct and indirect effects on a range of factors) setting. The chapter builds on recent research on the agrifood transformation in developing countries. The chapter expands the existing analysis by linking the existing standards on impact assessment work to general advances in methods for impact assessment and by highlighting the ambiguity between achieving multiple goals, such as consumer needs, and development and environmental outcomes.