Short-term impact of food safety standards on agri-product exports: Evidence from Japan's positive list system on Chinese vegetable exports |
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| Authors: | Shaosheng Jin Baojie Ma Yuqing Zheng Xin Jin Wenchao Wu |
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| Institution: | 1. China Academy for Rural Development, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China;2. Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China;3. Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA;4. Social Sciences Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan |
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| Abstract: | We examine the short-term impact of the Positive List System (PLS), a strict food safety standard implemented by Japan in 2006, on vegetable exports from China to Japan. By applying a difference-in-difference model to unique monthly export data at the firm-product level, we found that the PLS decreased the probability of Chinese vegetable firms exporting to Japan by 3.4%, and decreased their export quantity and value by 9.7% and 8.6%, respectively. Most of the policy impact is through a decrease in the intensive trade margin (i.e., how much to trade), rather than the extensive trade margin (i.e., whether to trade). We also found that foreign-invested enterprises and smaller enterprises are less affected than non-foreign-invested enterprises and larger enterprises. Our results alleviate the concern that stricter food safety standards may exclude many firms, especially small ones, from the export market. |
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| Keywords: | agriculture products China food safety standards Japan positive list system |
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