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Price Premiums for Eco-friendly Commodities: Are ‘Green’ Markets the Best Way to Protect Endangered Ecosystems?

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  • Paul Ferraro
  • Toshihiro Uchida
  • Jon Conrad

Abstract

‘Green’ markets represent a means through which public goods can be privately provided. A green product is an impure public good consisting of a private good (e.g., rain forest honey) bundled with a jointly produced public good (e.g., biodiversity protection). In the context of ecosystem protection, popular green commodities include eco-tourism excursions, coffee grown under forest canopies (‘shade-grown’), tagua nuts for buttons and ornaments, rainforest nuts and oils for cosmetic products, and rain forest honey. We examine the dynamic efficiency of eco-friendly price premiums in achieving ecosystem protection and rural welfare goals by contrasting the use of price premiums to the use of payments that are tied directly to ecosystem protection. We demonstrate analytically and empirically that direct payments are likely to be more efficient as a conservation policy instrument. Depending on the available funds, the direct payments may be better or worse than green price premiums in achieving rural welfare objectives. If direct payments are not feasible for social or political reasons, we demonstrate analytically and empirically that the price premium approach is likely to be more effective at achieving conservation and development objectives than the currently more popular policy of subsidizing capital acquisition in eco-friendly commercial activities. Copyright Springer 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Ferraro & Toshihiro Uchida & Jon Conrad, 2005. "Price Premiums for Eco-friendly Commodities: Are ‘Green’ Markets the Best Way to Protect Endangered Ecosystems?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 32(3), pages 419-438, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:32:y:2005:i:3:p:419-438
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-005-7962-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ferraro, Paul J. & Simpson, R. David, 2005. "Cost-effective conservation when eco-entrepreneurs have market power," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(5), pages 651-663, October.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Groom, Ben & Palmer, Charles, 2014. "Relaxing constraints as a conservation policy," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 505-528, August.
    2. Stefanie Engel & Charles Palmer, 2011. "Complexities of Decentralization in a Globalizing World," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 50(2), pages 157-174, October.
    3. Delmas, Magali A. & Grant, Laura E., 2008. "Eco-Labeling Strategies: The Eco-Premium Puzzle In The Wine Industry," Working Papers 37325, American Association of Wine Economists.
    4. Kitti, Mitri & Heikkilä, Jaakko & Huhtala, Anni, 2009. "‘Fair’ policies for the coffee trade – protecting people or biodiversity?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 739-758, December.
    5. Leander Raes & Nikolay Aguirre & Marijke D’Haese & Guido Huylenbroeck, 2014. "Analysis of the cost-effectiveness for ecosystem service provision and rural income generation: a comparison of three different programs in Southern Ecuador," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 471-498, June.
    6. Eusebius Pantja Pramudya & Lukas Rumboko Wibowo & Fitri Nurfatriani & Iman Kasiman Nawireja & Dewi Ratna Kurniasari & Sakti Hutabarat & Yohanes Berenika Kadarusman & Ananda Oemi Iswardhani & Rukaiyah , 2022. "Incentives for Palm Oil Smallholders in Mandatory Certification in Indonesia," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-28, April.
    7. Robert Innes & George Frisvold, 2009. "The Economics of Endangered Species," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 485-512, September.
    8. Delmas, Magali A. & Gergaud, Olivier & Lim, Jinghui, 2016. "Does Organic Wine Taste Better? An Analysis of Experts' Ratings," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 329-354, December.
    9. Kecinski, Maik & Messer, Kent D. & Peo, Audrey J., 2018. "When Cleaning Too Much Pollution Can Be a Bad Thing: A Field Experiment of Consumer Demand for Oysters," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 686-695.
    10. Guzhen Zhou & Wuyang Hu & Wenchao Huang, 2016. "Are Consumers Willing to Pay More for Sustainable Products? A Study of Eco-Labeled Tuna Steak," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Birgit Bednar-Friedl & Doris Behrens & Michael Getzner, 2012. "Optimal Dynamic Control of Visitors and Endangered Species in a National Park," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(1), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Joshua S. Gans & Vivienne Groves, 2012. "Carbon Offset Provision with Guilt‐Ridden Consumers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 243-269, March.
    13. Zhen, Huayang & Qiao, Yuhui & Zhao, Haijun & Ju, Xuehai & Zanoli, Raffaele & Waqas, Muhammad Ahmed & Lun, Fei & Knudsen, Marie Trydeman, 2022. "Developing a conceptual model to quantify eco-compensation based on environmental and economic cost-benefit analysis for promoting the ecologically intensified agriculture," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    14. Atallah, Shady S. & Gómez, Miguel I., 2014. "Bioeconomics of Climate Change Adaptation: Coffee Berry Borer and Shade-Grown," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170215, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Lippert, Christian, 2009. "Fraud and free riding in tropical forests – on the potential for certification to enforce sustainable resource use indirectly," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 58(03), pages 1-11, April.
    16. Yinqiu Ji & Christopher C. M. Baker & Viorel D. Popescu & Jiaxin Wang & Chunying Wu & Zhengyang Wang & Yuanheng Li & Lin Wang & Chaolang Hua & Zhongxing Yang & Chunyan Yang & Charles C. Y. Xu & Alex D, 2022. "Measuring protected-area effectiveness using vertebrate distributions from leech iDNA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Pirard, Romain & Lapeyre, Renaud, 2014. "Classifying market-based instruments for ecosystem services: A guide to the literature jungle," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 106-114.
    18. Delmas, Magali A. & Gergaud, Olivier, 2021. "Sustainable practices and product quality: Is there value in eco-label certification? The case of wine," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

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      More about this item

      Keywords

      conservation; dynamic efficiency; eco-label; ecosystem; payments; subsidies; H21; Q28;
      All these keywords.

      JEL classification:

      • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
      • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy

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