Effects of carbon reduction labels: Evidence from scanner data

We investigate the effects of carbon reduction labels using a detailed scanner data set. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that having a carbon label has no impact on detergent prices or demand. We also investigate possible heterogeneous effects of carbon labels using the synthetic control method. We find no evidence to indicate that the prices for the counterfactual detergents without the label would have been any different from the prices of the carbon-labeled detergents. We investigate the reasons for these results and conclude that the specific design of the carbon label is responsible for its lack of success

Ecolabels and The Economic Recession

We examine the effect of the 2008 economic recession on consumers’ observed expenditures for eco-labelled grocery products. Traditional price theory predicts that consumers change their spending during an economic downturn and we would expect the sales share of eco-labelled products to fall since these are relatively more expensive than non-labelled products. We use supermarket loyalty card data from the UK and show that the recession had widely different effects on the expenditure share of different eco-labelled grocery products. We confirm, empirically, that expenditure shares on organic products declined over the time period under study but the expenditures share for fair-trade products increased over the same period. We evaluate alternative models of decision making to explain our results, viz., a salience model and a model of reputation signalling. We find that both of these models give a plausible explanation of our empirical results

Self-selection vs learning: evidence from Indian exporting firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study whether exporting firms outperform non‐exporting firms along a number of performance characteristics. It also examines whether the differences in performance characteristics are due to the self‐selection of better firms into exporting or because the firms that start exporting for some unknown reason experience productivity growth. Design/methodology/approach – The dataset comprised a panel of Indian manufacturing firms for a period of 17 years from 1990 to 2006. Findings – Exporters were found to systematically outperform non‐exporters over a number of characteristics. Also, evidence was found of “self‐selection”, that is, firms that are more productive enter the export market. There was some evidence of learning, that is exporting firms experience an increase in productivity. Originality/value – This is the first paper to look at the issue of self‐selection vs learning for exporting firms using a dataset from India

Ecolabels and the economic recession

We examine the effect of the 2008 economic recession on consumers’ observed expenditures for eco-labelled grocery products. Traditional price theory predicts that consumers change their spending during an economic downturn and we would expect the sales share of eco-labelled products to fall since these are relatively more expensive than non-labelled products. We use supermarket loyalty card data from the UK and show that the recession had widely different effects on the expenditure share of different eco-labelled grocery products. We confirm, empirically, that expenditure shares on organic products declined over the time period under study but the expenditures share for fair-trade products increased over the same period. We evaluate alternative models of decision making to explain our results, viz., a salience model and a model of reputation signalling. We find that both of these models give a plausible explanation of our empirical results

Self-selection vs learning: evidence from Indian exporting firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study whether exporting firms outperform non-exporting firms along a number of performance characteristics. It also examines whether the differences in performance characteristics are due to the self-selection of better firms into exporting or because the firms that start exporting for some unknown reason experience productivity growth. Design/methodology/approach – The dataset comprised a panel of Indian manufacturing firms for a period of 17 years from 1990 to 2006. Findings – Exporters were found to systematically outperform non-exporters over a number of characteristics. Also, evidence was found of “self-selection”, that is, firms that are more productive enter the export market. There was some evidence of learning, that is exporting firms experience an increase in productivity. Originality/value – This is the first paper to look at the issue of self-selection vs learning for exporting firms using a dataset from India.Exports, India, Manufacturing industry, Productivity rate