Contract Law and the self-enforcing range of contracts in agriculture.: Private institutions and multilateral reputation mechanisms

The enforcement of contracts is necessary for efficient exchange in economic activities. The predominance in agriculture of informal contracts leads in many countries to the implementation of specific legal rules for contract law. This article emphasises the complementarities between public and private ordering when contracts are informal. We analyse the role of private contract-enforcement institution (CEI) as a support for multilateral reputation mechanisms. Our case study is focusing on interprofessional organisations, which are usually analysed as cartels having a negative impact on welfare. We demonstrate that under specific conditions, they can improve contract enforcement and thus efficiency

Private Ordering, Collective Action, and the Self-Enforcing Range of Contracts. The Case of French Livestock Industry

Contract enforcement is acknowledged as a major issue in Law and in Economics. Contrasting substitution and complementary perspectives with respect to the role of private versus public enforcement institutions, this article analyses how contract law can support private institutions, and enhance economic efficiency. With multilateral agreements at stake, self-regulation and reputation mechanisms at the core of private ordering have limitations that collective organizations backed by the Law help to overcome. The analysis is substantiated by empirical data from the cattle industry. Our results suggest the need for a broader approach to contract regulation by legal scholars and antitrust-authorities.Contract Law, Private Enforcement, Transaction Costs, Self-Regulation, Coalitions, Cartels, Collective Organization

Private ordering, collective action, and the self-enforcing range of contracts

Contract law, Private enforcement, Transaction costs, Self-regulation, Coalitions, Cartels, Collective organization, K12, D23, D74, L14, Q13,

Private Ordering, Collective Action, and the Self-Enforcing Range of Contracts: The Case of French Livestock Industry

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La certification des exploitations agricoles

Mazé Armelle, Aubry Christine, Papy François. La certification des exploitations agricoles. In: Économie rurale. N°258, 2000. Les signes officiels de qualité. Efficacité, politique et gouvernance. pp. 134-139

How Can Collective Action Support the Agroecological Transition in Geographical Indication Vineyards? Insights from the Loire Valley Wine Area

Few studies have examined the agroecological transition in viticulture, which involves transformation processes, especially at the territorial scale where collective action plays a key role in the dissemination of transition strategies. Collective action in the agroecological transition must be studied in order to encourage and accelerate changes in practices. In this study, collective action is analyzed to understand how governance structures influence the development of collective agroecological transition strategies. Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development and Social–Ecological Systems analysis frameworks were applied to the Anjou-Saumur wine area in the Loire Valley, where nearly 80% of wine production is under protected designations of origin. Data were collected through seven semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed qualitatively in order to identify the main actors and collective strategies in the agroecological transition. The study showed that the polycentric structure of governance in the protected designations of the origin system enables institutional actors to collectively coordinate their actions. Moreover, collective action is structured in three focal action situations that overlap at the institutional level due to two key actors in the agroecological transition, but also due to tacit rules of the organizational structure for some actors. Action situations dynamically interact with each other across time and geographical scales, helping the agroecological transition process forward by combining top-down and bottom-up strategies. This study provides a novel way of applying the IAD/SES framework as well as a new look at collective action for the agroecological transition at the institutional scale in French viticultural systems under protected designations of origin. This paves the way for interdisciplinary research for the agroecological transition, and might help to select the best strategies to encourage changes of viticultural practices

Multifonctionnalité de l'agriculture et modèles de l'exploitation agricole

[fre] Une revue de la littérature permet de dégager quatre grandes façons de concevoir et modéliser l'exploitation. Elles constituent une base large pour étudier la transformation des manières de produire. Néanmoins, l'analyse de trois programmes de recherche montre qu'il est nécessaire de mobiliser autrement ces modèles pour tenir compte des nouvelles questions que soulève le débat sur la multifonctionnalité de l'agriculture. [eng] Multifunctionality of agriculture and farm models - A literature reviews allows to identify four major ways of conceiving and modelling the farm. They représenta wide basis for studying changes in agricultural production. However, the analysis of three research programmes shows the need for adaptations in these models to address the new issues arising in the recent debates on the multifunc- tionality of agriculture.

Entre mémoire et preuve : le rôle de l'écrit dans les exploitations agricoles

La société manifeste actuellement des exigences de traçabilité vis-à-vis de l'agriculture et considère que pour y répondre, l'écrit peut, sous certaines conditions, avoir un statut de preuve. Ceci nous a conduits à analyser la production de documents écrits dans l'exploitation agricole. Nous avons entrepris une analyse des pratiques de saisie et de stockage des informations relatives au processus de production sur un échantillon d'une dizaine d'exploitations agricoles de grande culture en Picardie, en mettant l'accent sur le rôle de l'écrit comme aide cognitive et support de mémorisation pour les agriculteurs. Nous mettons ainsi en évidence une diversité de formats de saisie et de reports successifs sur différents supports qu'il est possible de relier à la diversité des modes d'organisation et de gestion interne des exploitations. Pour concilier le rôle de mémoire de l'écrit dans la gestion des exploitations et celui de preuve pour les clients de l'agriculture, nous suggérons plusieurs pistes