Food Quality Standards in Equilibrium Models: A Discussion of Current Modeling Approaches

Throughout recent year food quality standards have become a ubiquitous phenomenon that nationally and globally influences agri-food markets. With equilibrium models commonly used in the quantitative analysis of market and trade effects, we review possible approaches to modeling standards existent in the literature, elaborate the reasoning behind them and discuss their suitability to reflect "real world" situations. While the modeling approaches identified may respectively depict a specific situation, they may not be appropriate in others. That is they capture certain effects of standards only. With increasing ability to account for the various effects of standards, the modeling approaches become more complex and the data requirements increase.