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The initial earnings of U.S. immigrants vary enormously by country of origin. Via three interrelated analyses, we show earnings convergence across source countries with time in the United States Human-capital theory plausibly explains the inverse relationship between initial earnings and earnings growth rates: the good fit between data and theory suggests that variation in initial skill transferability — not variation in the “quality” of human capital — underlies variation in initial earnings. A new method of testing for emigration bias confirms that selective emigration does not cause the convergence. Functional form and sample selections embedded in most recent analyses of immigrant economic assimilation bias downwards the earnings growth of post-1965 U.S. immigrants. When both functional-form and sample-selection constraints are lifted, a dramatically different picture of the economic assimilation of U.S.immigrants emerges.

We study the relationship between country of origin and employment prospects for immigrants to South Africa, an emerging host country characterized by high levels of unemployment, labour market imperfections and a scarcity of skills. Using the 2001 South African census, we estimate the probability of being employed for working-age immigrant men and South African internal migrants. We find that, conditional on individual characteristics and education levels, the probability of being employed varies by country of origin, and that it is different for immigrants relative to native internal migrants. Immigrants from advanced countries outperform natives, while those from certain central, west-African and Asian countries underperform them. Additionally, results indicate that education increases the probability of employment for immigrants from all countries. These probabilities converge at high levels of education, resulting in greater dispersion of employment probabilities across countries at lower levels of e...

Using original survey data, we investigate how British, French, and Swedish managers scanned their political environments during the crisis in the Eurozone. We expose instances when country of origin has a significant effect on scanning practices: British managers claimed to possess the most developed political scanning capabilities, making the most frequent use of government information sources. British and Swedish managers used business associations as intelligence sources more frequently than their French counterparts. We also found that exposure to the Euro crisis significantly affected scanning behaviours: irrespective of country of origin, managers strongly exposed to the crisis considered it strategically important to scan political events during the crisis, developed formal scanning routines, and reported frequent use of both governments and business associations as sources of political information. Combined, our findings contribute to county-specific research into executives' environmental scanning practices by suggesting a universal mindset of environmental scanning during times of crisis.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the country-of-origin (COO) effect on product evaluation to determine the different effects of COO in Asian nations. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focus on automobiles as the target product category and conduct consumer surveys in three Asian countries – China, Japan, and South Korea – and the USA. Since these four countries are the major global production bases and consumption markets, the authors can examine the reciprocal effects of COO across countries. The authors propose a hierarchical conjoint analysis and estimate parameters. For the attributes of conjoint analysis, the authors incorporate both the COO of products and other functional aspects such as price and fuel consumption to compare their effects on consumer evaluation. Findings – The authors find different tendencies in each country’s COO effect. Further, the authors discuss the factors affecting consumer evaluation in each country based on the country’s culture and general product images. Originality/value – The authors’ contributions to the literature are as follows. First, in the research design, the authors incorporate COO information as an attribute of automobiles. This enables us to compare the COO effect with the effects of other functional aspects. The authors find that the COO effect is substantially the same as the effect of other functional attributes. Second, the authors assume a hierarchical structure in the conjoint analysis and discuss the different preferences in each country. This hierarchical structure enables to extract the reciprocal effects of COO across countries.

Mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) has become a thorny issue in U.S.–Canada bilateral trade relations. We undertake an ex post investigation of the impact of the law on U.S. imports of Canadian beef, feeder, and fed cattle. Using a partial equilibrium framework, we derive U.S. import demand equations for Canadian cattle and beef, and employ the Bai and Perron (1998, 2003) procedure for detecting multiple structural breaks with break points being endogenously determined. We find evidence that COOL may have caused significant structural change in U.S. imports of Canadian feeder and fed cattle. L’etiquetage du pays d'origine obligatoire est devenu un sujet epineux des relations commerciales entre le Canada et les Etats-Unis. Dans la presente etude, nous effectuons une analyse ex post des repercussions de la Loi sur les importations americaines de viande de bœuf, de bovins d'engraissement et de bovins finis. A l'aide d'un modele d’equilibre partiel, nous avons derive des equations de demande d'importation de bovins et de viande de bœuf de la part des Etats-Unis et nous avons utilise les tests de Bai et Perron (1998, 2003) pour deceler les ruptures structurelles multiples, dont les points de rupture ont ete determines de facon endogene. Les resultats de notre etude montrent que l’etiquetage du pays d'origine peut avoir cause un changement structurel considerable sur les importations de bovins d'engraissement et de bovins finis.

Purpose– Luxury brands’ marketing efforts have traditionally focussed on developed nations since that has comprised the majority of consumer demand. However, double-digit growth in developing nations such as India and China, have attracted the attention of most luxury brand managers. Using cue utilization theory, the authors conducted a qualitative study in two phases comprised of first, focus group discussions (FGD), structured observations (SO) and second, In-Depth Interviews (IDI) to understand the effects of country of origin (COO) on Indian consumers’ current day purchasing behaviors with luxury products. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Using cue utilization theory, the authors conducted a qualitative study in two phases comprised of first, FGD, SO and second, IDI to understand the effects of COO on Indian consumers’ current day purchasing behaviors with luxury products. A conceptual framework has been developed that should help luxury brands formulate marketing strategies for this booming market.Findings– Further, this study found that COO affects the exploration of luxury brands and this process is carried out digitally and primarily with friends. Luxury brand managers can insert detailed information about COO on web sites and can understand the keywords used in the search engines to facilitate consumers using appropriate consideration data. This research also found that COO is compared on the basis of quality, features and innovation.Research limitations/implications– The results of this study are only from one emerging country, i.e., India. Similar studies should be carried out in other emerging nations. Additionally, developed countries can also carry out comprehensive research in this domain as their behavior is also changing for COO and luxury brands.Originality/value– This insight can be used by the brand managers and they can develop apps and web sites that would help the consumers to compare the COO for their products. Additionally, this research found that COO helps the luxury consumers to evaluate the brands and how they associate it with consumer images. Luxury brand managers need to be conscious when their countries products/ brands have been rated low by the consumers as it could result in consumers simply discarding them from their consideration set.

While international trade in organic products has grown significantly, understanding consumers’ preferences for imported organic foods has remained limited. This research examines the impact of country-of-origin labeling on US consumers’ choices of organic foods. Results show that consumer valuation of domestically produced organic broccoli was significantly higher than that of imported organic broccoli. Adding information about USDA organic certification standards/rules for imported products mildly increases consumer valuation of imported organic broccoli in some cases. These findings suggest that providing such information may have a positive impact on consumer willingness to purchase imported organic products.

A growing number of foreign country nationals in economies worldwide challenges academics to raise a question whether one’s country of origin (COO) matters when selecting candidates for managerial positions. Thus the aim of this paper is to analyze the COO effect on the evaluation of managerial competence of a foreign individual. The analysis includes both the literature review and the empirical findings from the authors’ pilot research. A focus group interview is the method that was applied in the study. The analysis contributes to the nascent streams in international business and cross-cultural management research that concern the COO effect and the liability of foreignness (LOF) that refers to foreign newcomers (i.e. immigrants, ex/inpatriaties). It also adds some practical implications for the International Human Resource Management literature with that respect. The empirical findings suggest that COO is apparent when managerial skills are evaluated by locals.

Country of origin labeling (COOL) is a common practice. It occurs routinely for many products in many places, but the US implementation of mandatory COOL for meat, whose purpose is to identify the origin of the livestock used to produce the meat, generated much controversy and a major WTO dispute that has yet to be settled. This working paper estimates econometrically differential market impacts of mandatory country of origin labels on cattle raised in Canada and imported into the United States. We find significant evidence of differential impacts of COOL through widening of the price bases and a decline in ratios of imports to total domestic use for both fed and feeder cattle.

The indication of country of origin on food products is of growing importance and offers potentials for product differentiation to, among others, cacao producers from countries in the developing and transition stages. In this study the importance of country-of-origin (CoO) effects on the quality perception of chocolate among German consumers is examined using the example of Ecuadorian cacao. The quality perception of chocolate is the result of a complex perceptual process influenced by extrinsic and intrinsic product attributes, country images, socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics of the consumer and situational factors such as place of purchase. Based on this conceptual framework, an online survey has been conducted with 205 German chocolate consumers. ols regression analysis revealed a strong CoO-effect on the purchase of Ecuadorian chocolate. These findings have implications for management.

The current research is empirically investigated the impact of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism on growing customer trend directly also through global marketing as mediating variable. It is also assessed the impact of global marketing on growing consumer trend. By deploying Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS, three independent variables were analyzed, country of origin (CoC), global marketing (GM), consumer ethnocentrism (CE) and growing consumer trend (GCT) as dependent variable. The findings showed that both country of origin (CoC) and consumer ethnocentrism (CE) have significant effect on global marketing (GM) as well as on growing consumer trend (GCT). Further, global marketing (GM) successfully mediated and showed significant effect of both country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism. Finally global marketing has significant impact on growing consume trend.

Prior research has analyzed accounting quality around the world only working on institutional differences mainly at country level. Little research has been devoted to top management cultural values (here defined as CFO’s country of origin), which has turned out to be able to generate unique results on firms’ outcomes. In this work, building a unique hand collected dataset based on 954 unique CFOs across Europe and 4,478 firm-year observations I investigate the effect of CFO country of origin on accounting quality in the European Union. My findings show first, as a validity test, that there is a CFO fixed effect on accounting quality also in a cross-country setting (i.e. outside the US). Then, I show that in the EU foreign CFOs are able to foster accounting quality relative to local peers. Moreover, working on economies clusters I find that CFOs working in insider economies, but born elsewhere (outside this area) are able to marginally improve accounting quality for the firm they work with. On the contrary, this does not apply if a CFO born in an insider economy works outside his area of birth. Finally, working on CFO turnover, I find that overall CFO changes have an effect on accruals quality level. Nonetheless, cross-sectional tests reveal that such changes are significant when CFO turnover happens from CFO born in a low (high) IP country to a CFO born in a high (low) IP country, where accounting quality improves (worsens).

This paper examines the nature of the Country of Origin effect by exploring suggested options to enhance positive COO associations in consumers’ minds and offsetting negative COO impact on purchase decisions. The approach taken is a literature review with a comparison of Turkey’s white goods brand Beko Plc’s international growth and marketing strategies. This paper focuses on suggested international marketing strategies in order to increase the country image of Turkey as well as the brand image of Beko Plc. In the interest of achieving a sustainable growth in foreign markets and offsetting the negative consumers’ perceptions of products made in particular countries, organizations are in need of advanced quality management practices and applicable pricing policies that respond adequately to consumer needs.

Recent legislation by the United States and European Union governments now mandates the provision of country-of-origin (COO) information at the point of purchase for a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, and other assorted food products. To better understand the significance of these regulatory changes, two decades of existing COO food labeling research are synthesized, reviewed, and discussed. The implications for two primary sets of actors within aggregate marketing systems, consumers and practitioners, are then discussed from a macromarketing perspective. Based on the reviewed literature, the authors conclude that little generalizable knowledge about COO food labeling effects exists, and further identify a lack of sufficient theoretical application and development as a primary reason. Consequently, the exact impact of mandatory (and voluntary) COO labeling initiatives for consumers and practitioners still remains unclear and highly debatable. Thus, as these initiatives continue to make country-of-origin labeling more commonplace around the world, it is crucial that additional theory-driven research be conducted, especially from a macromarketing perspective, to foster more generalizable knowledge about the complex role of COO information in aggregate food marketing systems.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism pertain to first-generation immigrants, who often identify with two or more countries. Design/methodology/approach – After a pretest to validate the modified consumer ethnocentrism scale, the main study used a series of scenario-based experiments and compiled data from 419 members of four distinct first-generation immigrant communities. Findings – Non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of economically advanced countries. Ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of their home and host countries relative to foreign products, regardless of the economic standing of foreign countries. When home and host countries represent significantly different degrees of economic advancement, both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of the more advanced country. Research limitations/implications – Apart from the individual effects of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism, the interplay between the two effects can yield important insights. There are other ways to operationalize multicultural identity beyond studying first-generation immigrants. Researchers should go beyond nationality and incorporate other forces of cultural diversity. Practical implications – For both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants, the product that benefits from both effects is the most preferred, and the product that benefits from neither of the two effects is the least preferred. Where the product benefits from one but not the other effect, the two effects hold roughly equal power for ethnocentric consumers, but COO dominates CE for non-ethnocentric consumers. Originality/value – The paper presents a critical evaluation and extension of the respective literatures investigating familiar constructs in multicultural settings.

International audience; This article explores the country of origin effects of private equity investment on employment in France. Using propensity score matching methodology applied to establishment-level survey data, we find that foreign investors are significantly more likely to induce job shedding and employment insecurity than are French investors. As suggested by the literature on comparative capitalism, national differences may persist in conjunction with commonalities and trends in global capitalism.

We estimate the implicit prices consumers are willing to pay for country of origin labels, using hedonic price methods and panel data for meat and meat products in the United Kingdom (UK). Our results show that consumers place significant value on origin information across fresh and processed meat products, especially since the horsemeat incident in 2013. The findings also suggest that retailers have increased the use of voluntary labelling of processed meat products since the incident. Hence, further extension of existing mandatory labelling requirements to processed meat products may not be required at least in the short term.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and quantify the factors determining the prices of organic and conventional cheese. For a market with a high degree of product differentiation, i.e. the German cheese market, price premiums of various cheese attributes are examined. Thereby, special attention is paid to country of origin (CO) effects, geographical indications (GIs) and organic claims. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on homescan panel data of 13,000 representative German households provided by the GfK consumer research association. The data set combines actual purchase and demographic data for a five-year sample period from 2004 to 2008. Applying the hedonic technique, the cheese price is modelled as a function of a wide range of consumer, store and product characteristics. Effects are analysed in detail by distinguishing between supply- and demand-side effects and by estimating price regressions not only for the whole sample but also for different shop types. Findings – The estimated organic price premiums range between 18 per cent in discount shops and 26 per cent in hypermarkets. The impacts of the CO and GIs are considerably smaller in magnitude and limited to special shopping venues like super- and hypermarkets. Originality/value – The German cheese market is currently evolving from a staple product market to a highly differentiated market where increasing attention is paid to quality indicators such as organic claims or GIs. The data are remarkable, both in sample size and information content. Furthermore, the estimation of shop type-specific price premiums offers new and detailed insights in consumer valuation and producer costs of a wide range of cheese attributes.

The use of food labels and packaging information on place of origin and credence quality has increased, but it is still unclear how such information relates to consumer decisions and choices concerning the relative valuation of attributes. Valid measurement methods are needed to assess the importance attributed by the public to such information, but also to inform the industry about market demand. Discrete choice experiments (CEs) are frequently used to assess consumer preferences for food attributes. However, suitable methods are needed to reveal the probabilistic nature of preference data, so that heterogeneity can be explicitly accounted for. An R-index measure was modelled to account for choice probabilities in this study. Two surveys of Swedish residents, without (n=506) and with (n=278) a price vector, compared attribute importance for origin and extrinsic quality labelling of beef in CEs. Problems of structural reliability owing to unstable associations in attribute importance between formats were supported, but on levels rather than orderings. The R-index analysis of CE data revealed violations of attribute transitivity and dominance. Extending CE analysis to include choice probabilities may be useful for consumer profiling and for optimisation of product information. Labels with specific country-of-origin information instead of a wider EU/non-EU designation were the most determining attribute in this study.

The authors in this study have measured and compared the extent of consumer ethnocentrism across different socio-demographic groups; the relationship of consumer ethnocentrism with different demographic variables; and the effect of country of origin on the perceptions, evaluations and likeliness of purchase of foreign products by Indian university students. The findings show that the Indian university students have CETSCORES lower than college/university students in most parts of the world, viz. Czech Republic, Estonia, and Poland and also the US. The authors therefore conclude that consumer ethnocentrism is a phenomenon of the developed markets and the Indian market remains open to foreign brands much to delight of foreign manufacturers.

The aim of this study is to fill in a gap in Country-of-Origin (COO) studies by assessing the relationship between COO and consumer decision-making processes in Morocco, an emerging market, and non-Western Mediterranean country and culture. Specifically, this research study demonstrates that the consumer demographic characteristic of age does make a difference in the COO influence for product categories within Morocco. Age was shown to interact with the impact of COO with regard to purchasing decisions regarding products from more industrialized/economically advanced nations, compared to products from less economically advanced/industrialized nations. These results have managerial implications in assisting multinational organizations in their market segmentations and positioning strategies.

Certain product categories, such as cars, software, and even perfume, are strongly identified with certain countries (Kotler and Gertner 2002) (e.g., French perfume; German cars, etc), but not all the products of a country benefit the same from a strong COO image. However, despite the prolificacy of COO-related studies, the observed effects are subject to contextual variations that remain unexplained. As research evidence shows, one of main unexplained variations of COO effects is the variation across product categories (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos 2004; Han and Terpstra 1988; Kaynak and Cavusgil 1983; Roth and Romeo 1992).

The study explores the relationship between perceptions about products produced in a country and the country's reputation and image. It considers country-of-origin effect (COO) from an inverse perspective; rather than looking at how national reputation affects perceptions of products, it measures how brand image affects country image. It used a method that blends survey and experimental design to test the effects of brand association on country image using 488 subjects. The results indicate support for an inverse COO: knowledge of the country of origin of a brand can enhance the image of the country in which the brand originated. An implication of the study is that the public and private sectors could work together to shape a country's image.

The 2002 Farm Securit and Rural Investment Act mandated that country-of-origin labeling (COOL) be applied to specific food commodities. Using revealed preference data for 1998–2006, a nonlinear AIDS model is used to estimate the demand for uncooked frozen, uncooked fresh, and precooked salmon to assess the impact of the legislation on consumer demand patterns. Findings from a non parametric analysis suggest a possible rotation in the demand curve for fresh salmon that may be linked with the quality signal associated with COOL. However, our findings indicate that COOL had no significant impact on overall consumer demand for the three products. All three were found to be inelastic, with uncooked fresh salmon being slightly more price sensitive than uncooked frozen and precooked salmon. Given the expenditure elasticities, the fresh salmon segment of the industry appear to be more vibrant than the other salmon segments and would likely influence investment decisions in the salmon industry.

While the sustainable growth of newly emerging economics is increasing, how customers perceive the product made in the newly emerging country remains an important consideration. The purpose of this study is to investigate determinants of the country of origin effects by comparing perception on made in the newly emerging and developed country. Study 1 and Study 2 examined determinants of the country of origin effects by considering the moderating role of the product categories based on i) utilitarian vs. hedonic and ii) the perceived degree of the risk. Study 1 applied the perceived acquisition value (PAV) and the perceived transaction value (PTV) to measure the country of origin effects, while Study 2 investigated the effects of the country of origin on customer satisfaction by controlling the effects of a covariate of attitude. This study applied empirical analyses that utilize the factorial Multivariate Analysis of Variance (factorial MANOVA) for study 1and factorial Analysis of Covariance (factorial ANCOVA) for study 2. This study proposes a policy recommendation regarding which product categories should the manufacturing industries of those countries focus in effort to ensure the sustained growth of their economies. This study also provides a managerial implication in that the policy makers of these countries should investigate in minimizing the display of the country of origin information on these products to benefit from greater value added from manufacturing products from such categories, given the intersection between the products without country of origin information and the products from a developed country in study 2 indicating that the undetermined order of consumer satisfaction resulting from the country of origin effects.

Research in the area of international marketing has shown that consumers’ assessments of product quality may change (positively/negatively) according to country of manufacture, country of design and/or country of parts of the products. While this notion has been established in the product context, no research has attempted to isolate similar effects of the country of origin construct in relation to service offerings. This research deconstructs the country of origin (COO) construct for international services along country of origin of the brand (COB), country of origin of where the service is delivered (COSD), and country of origin of the person providing the service (CPI). A total of 143 respondents participated in the online survey undertaken in Australia. The service to be evaluated in the experiment was education service. Results of conjoint analysis in education service confirmed the effects and the importance of the proposed COO dimensions on consumers’ expectations of service quality. More specifically, the experiment revealed that CPI is more important than COB and COSD on consumers’ expectation of service quality.

Previous literature concerning immigrant financial market participation has typically treated the immigrant population as a homogeneous collective. However, the immigrant population in the United States is incredibly diverse, particularly in regards to country of origin. Using panel data, we test the hypothesis that differing information costs generate differences in U.S. immigrant asset market participation rates. We find significant variations (by country of origin) in the immigrant rates of holding stock, mutual funds, U.S. Savings Bonds, and other fixed income securities do exist. Our results provide support for the theory that information costs drive these differences. (JEL: G11)Keywords: Household investment decision making; immigrants ©2010. All rights reserved. Work in progress. All errors are our own. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aprovision of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 requires country of origin labeling (COOL) for certain agricultural commodities. To comply with the law, producers, processors, and retailers face additional production costs associated with labeling, separating, and tracking commodities. Using estimated costs provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), we simulate the impacts of mandatory COOL on U.S. and global agricultural markets using a global static general equilibrium model (STAGEM). The results show resource adjustments that lead to decreases in production, consumption, and trade flows. The results assume no demand premium for labeled commodities relative to unlabeled commodities. Key Words: country of origin labeling, agricultural trade, global general equilibrium (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) Aprovision in the Farm Security and Rural InvestmentAct of 2002 (2002 FarmAct) required certain commodities-beef, pork, lamb, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and peanuts-sold at the retail level to be identified by their country of origin label (COOL). In a 2004 ruling, regulations were published to implement COOL for fish and shellfish. The regulations became effective inApril 2005. Congress responded to growing criticisms of the program by extending the comment period and allowing further debate on the COOL provision for the remaining commodities. This resulted in a delay of mandatory COOL for the remaining covered commodities. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Act) amended the COOL provisions. Goat meat, poultry, macadamia nuts, ginseng, and pecans were added as commodities covered by mandatory COOL. Regulations for all covered commodities were published in August 2008, and COOL provisions were implemented on September 30, 2008. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) issued a final ruling for COOL on January 15, 2009 (Federal Register 2009). It became effective on March 16, 2009. COOL increases the cost of production for covered commodities through increased labeling, separating, and tracking costs. This affects production along the entire supply chain, including imported commodities. Cost increases are likely to lead to decreases in the production of covered commodities, both domestic and imported, and to higher commodity prices. Cost estimates for implementing COOL in the impacted sectors of the supply chain are provided by theAMS (see Federal Register 2008). We use a global static general equilibrium model (STAGEM) to evaluate market responses and resource adjustments to mandatory COOL. The STAGEM model reflects world markets as they were in 2004. We employ the widely accepted equivalent variation (EV) method to measure social welfare gains or losses due to mandatory COOL. The EV measurement of welfare uses status quo (pre-policy) prices as a base and addresses the question: What change in income at the current prices would be equal to the change brought about by the policy in terms of the impact on utility? (Varian 1992) Our welfare indicator accounts for producer and consumer welfare, capturing economy-wide resource reallocation and adjustment due to mandatory COOL. However, our results assume no consumer preference for mandatory COOL relative to no labeling system. Given the cost assumptions developed by AMS (see Table 1), we find that the mandatory COOL provision reduces overall U.S. welfare through its impacts on commodity and downstream processing markets.We show that the costs of complying with mandatory COOL are likely to lead to decreases in agricultural production and increases in agricultural prices. Global market impacts are also reported, with trade volume and global welfare declining. Again, these results assume no consumer preferences for country of origin labeled commodities. Given the uncertainty of consumer responses to mandatory COOL, we model only the impacts of increased costs (as provided by AMS) on both consumers and producers due to COOL implementation. …

The study examines the impacts of implementing mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) on producer and consumer welfare in the U.S. meat industry. The equilibrium displacement model developed in this study includes twenty-nine equations representing retail-, processing-, and farm-level equilibrium conditions for the beef, pork, and chicken industries. Unlike previous studies, the model allows trade between domestic- and foreign-origin products and considers the imperfectly competitive market structure of meat processers. Empirical results show that without a significant increase in domestic meat demand, producers are not expected to benefit from the mandatory COOL implementation. Results of a sensitivity analysis indicate that consumers tend to bear more COOL costs than producers, as the own-price elasticity becomes more inelastic, and that producers' benefits increase as the elasticity of domestic demand becomes more elastic with respect to the price of imported products. The existence of market power in upstream and downstream markets of processors negatively affects both consumer and producer surplus. One implication of our findings is that U.S. beef and pork producers' promotion and advertising programs would be successful in expanding domestic demand when the programs make the own-price elasticity of domestic demand more inelastic and the cross-price elasticity of domestic demand more elastic with respect to import price. Key Words: checkoff, country of origin labeling, imperfect competition, price elasticity (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) The 2002 Farm Bill (PL 107-171) contained a country of origin labeling (COOL) provision that requires retailers to label the country of origin of the covered commodity, but implementation has been delayed twice by Congress. The 2008 Farm Bill (Food, Conservation, and Energy Act) made several changes to the COOL law, and the covered commodities now include whole muscle and ground products of beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and goat; seafood (wild and farm-raised fish and shell fish); fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, macadamia nuts, and pecans; and ginseng [see Preston and Kim (2009) for further discussion on the COOL law and USDA requirements].1 Although the implementation of this provision is expected to affect U.S. agriculture and food industries and trade relations with neighboring countries significantly, there is still a great deal of uncertainty regarding the COOL effect.2 Proponents of COOL claim that the new provision would increase the demand for U.S. agricultural products by promoting "Made in U.S.A." However, some producer groups such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) do not support mandatory COOL, expecting that the costs would outweigh the benefits. Packers and retailers are also concerned about the increased labor and infrastructure costs due to COOL requirements. The objective of this research is to estimate the effects of the COOL policy in the U.S. meat industry. The study analyzes factors that affect the distribution of COOL costs between producers and consumers with consideration of market power and trade. An equilibrium displacement model (EDM) is developed with the variable proportion processing technology for the U.S. meat industry, which includes substitution relations between domestic and foreign products under imperfectly competitive market conditions at the processing level. The EDM is simulated to examine how mandatory COOL would affect livestock producers and meat consumers under alternative scenarios for ownprice elasticity and cross-price elasticity between domestic and foreign products; for COOL costs; and for market power (processor's market power in both upstream and downstream markets). Under the proposed COOL policy, consumers will have substitution opportunities between two clearly differentiated products: domestic and foreign products, plus conventional substitutability among meat products. …

Purpose – This study aimed to investigate consumers' understanding of country of origin (CoO) information and its relative importance in the context of their everyday food purchase decisions. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional intercept survey of 402 consumers in two cities in New Zealand was conducted. Respondents were asked to describe what they had considered when selecting a food item in their trolley. This was followed by questions to assess respondents' knowledge of CoO and their use and understanding of common CoO labels. Findings – Price (42 per cent), taste (40 per cent), health (18 per cent), and quality (18 per cent) were the most important factors that respondents mentioned. Only 3.5 per cent of respondents mentioned CoO as one of the factors influencing their decision. Of respondents 61 per cent, when prompted, stated that they knew the CoO of the food product selected. Of these respondents, 90 per cent were correct. Of respondents 62 per cent stated that they look at CoO labels when making food purchase decisions. Yet, only one third of respondents correctly understood the difference between the “Made in” and “Product of” labels. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that consumers that do access CoO labels are misinterpreting this information which may form the basis of their assumptions about the source of origin of the brands and food products they routinely purchase. Practical implications – Mandatory CoO labelling policies may add costs and reinforce misconceptions that consumers already hold about the meaning of these labels. Originality/value – This study contributes to understanding of the extent to which consumers are competent in their knowledge and understanding of these informational labels.

As protectionist sentiments rise in many countries in light of the 2008–2009 financial crisis, it is more important than ever to understand the potential role of homophily on the country of origin (COO) effect in consumer purchases and how it can impact trade and investment. This study examines these attitudes using a sample of 139 university students from different ethnic backgrounds in Vancouver (Canada), one of the most culturally diverse cities in North America. The results confirm the importance of ethnicity in affecting attitudes toward different countries, including the impact of political/cultural ties and current/historical events on their formation. Variations among different ethnic groups were found, however.

Foreign investors access local knowledge by co-locating with other foreign direct investment (FDI) firms. However, different aspects of local knowledge can be obtained from different local businesses. Thus some foreign investors co-locate with FDI firms from the same country of origin, while others co-locate with foreign industry peers. We argue that, relative to industry FDI agglomeration, country-of-origin agglomeration provides an effective channel for the sharing of sensitive and tacit knowledge about local business environments. Therefore foreign investors in need of such local knowledge are more likely to locate in country-of-origin agglomerations. Empirical evidence based on FDI in Vietnam indicates that foreign investors who perceive local institutions as particularly weak, and those with a high degree of outsidership in the local environment, are more likely to seek country-of-origin agglomerations than industry FDI agglomerations.

The objective of this study is to assess the effect that country-of-origin and price have on efficacy of advertisements for a product. The African population has noticeably not featured much in country-of-origin research in spite of the growing size and complexity of the African consumer market. Country-of-origin refers to the country of manufacture, production, or growth where an article or product comes from. In realizing the goals for which it was set to achieve, this experimental study ascertained the influence of country-of-origin and price on advertisement efficacy involving an African population sample. Six hundred female and male undergraduates (with mean age = 23.02; SD= 3.2 years) were randomly drawn from a large university, to view a product advertisement that uniquely manipulated country-of-origin and price for a fictitious brand of insecticide named "Antisect." Data analysis was done using one-way analysis of variance. It was found that individually and collectively, country-of-origin and price did affect advertisement efficacy significantly. It was concluded that advertisers need to consider product's country- of-origin and product's price when developing successful advertisement campaigns. Beyond advertisements, country- of-origin and price also matter to buyers and consumers of products.

We introduce inter-firm competition related to the country of origin (COO) effect. In adding to previous literature that focuses on inter-country differences and the subsequent advantages and disad...

Seafood was the first class of foods to fall under the 2002 US regulatory requirements for mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL). If this regulation created benefits for consumers, filling an information void by demanding information that the market did not, then there should have been an observable response in the demand for seafood. To gauge the impact, we examined markets most likely to respond. We estimated retail demand for shrimp, seafood that in the USA is largely sourced from Southeast Asia and has a history of raising food safety concerns. Our estimated demand systems included standard variables consistent with economic theory—price and expenditure changes, ongoing trends, and seasonality in consumption patterns. The demand systems also accounted for regulations that required country-of-origin labels for some, but not all, foods prior to COOL. Data came from a nationally representative panel of households that record retail food purchases, allowing us to construct relatively high-frequency market data suitable for testing for the presence of even short-lived impacts. Household demographic information allowed us to separately estimate demands by consumers most likely to respond to label information. The demand systems yielded reasonable price and expenditure elasticity estimates, but none of the variables related to COOL revealed evidence of an impact.

Despite the growing use of country of origin (CoO) information and labels on food, the extent to which consumers really value this information is unclear. In an effort to understand this issue we present results of a hypothetical discrete choice experiment examining consumer willingness-to-pay for CoO information about meat and meat products. Our results reveal that CoO information is positively valued for all the food products we consider. However, it is relatively less important compared to other food attributes for a large number of products such as bacon, pizza and ready meals. Our results suggest that consumers do not value very highly CoO information for many of the food products examined. Therefore, if the associated costs of mandatory CoO implementation are sufficiently high this raises questions about the inclusion of this information on food labels.

Research on the influence of a product’s country-of-origin (COO) on consumers has been a very active field for many years (Usunier 2006), and many studies have claimed the existence of such effects (Pharr 2005). Nevertheless, some academics more recently suggested a decreasing interest in products’ COO by consumers, and raised questions on the actual strength of this influence (Samiee 2011; Samiee et al. 2005; Usunier 2002).

Increasingly, international trade policy analysis explores the economic effects of changes in ad-valorem tariffs, or ad-valorem equivalent non-tariff measures, on vertically integrated markets for which high quality data are not available. Standard Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) Armington models fail to account for either vertical linkages or parameter uncertainty. Here we introduce a modified Armington CES vertically integrated two-sector model, with nested Armington Elasticities, that incorporates uncertainty in the estimates of Armington Elasticities and market shares through a Monte Carlo simulation. As an illustrative case, we model the effects of changes in country of origin labeling (COOL) rules on the market shares of domestic and foreign cattle in the U.S. beef market. By accounting for parameter uncertainty in this way, we are able to illustrate the distribution of potential effects of repealing mandatory COOL. Moreover, we are able to decompose the effect of repealing COOL via its effect on relative prices, information available to consumers, and the quasi-general equilibrium effect. Finally, we uncover the conditions under which Canada and Mexico would benefit from the repeal of mandatory COOL by at least as much as they claim in their WTO filings against the regulation.

This research is aimed at investigating the consumer’s preference for food produced in Taiwan and the economic benefits for the country of origin labeling (COOL). The study used Vickrey second-price sealed-bid auction to elicit the consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for products under COOL. The study compared the bid functions estimated with Tobit model and the premium functions estimated with ordinary least squares (OLS). Due to price affiliation, it is more reliable to use the estimated premium functions. The estimated premiums are 67.5%, 84.7% and 99% for Taiwan products over their alternatives of China olives, China oolong tea, and Vietnam oolong tea, respectively. The study concludes that enacting and rigorously enforcing a COOL law would increase economic benefits to consumers in Taiwan, and at the same time, placing the imported products in the leveled playing field.

This study attempts to evaluate the economic benefits of the country of origin labeling (COOL) in Taiwan. A Vickrey second-price sealed-bid auction was conducted to estimate the consumer’s willingness to pay for Taiwan products versus those from China and Vietnam. Our experiment was designed to investigate the impacts of product tasting on bidding behavior. The regression results show that tasting raised bids for Taiwan and China teas, but lowered bids for Vietnam tea. The econometric results show very high premiums for Taiwan products. Taiwanese consumers and food producers stand to benefit greatly with COOL.

The study develops a general analytical framework of heterogeneous consumer preferences to examine the effects of country of origin labeling (COOL) regulation on consumer purchasing decisions and welfare. We show that while differences in consumer perceptions about COOL information, namely, whether it is viewed as an attribute that differentiates products vertically or horizontally, do not alter the nature of the market and consumer welfare effects of mandatory COOL, the relative strength of consumer preferences for COOL are shown to be important in determining the magnitude of these effects. In addition, our results show that the benchmark used (a no COOL versus a voluntary COOL regime) is critical in evaluating the effects of the policy. We show that, under both horizontal and vertical product differentiation, a change from a no COOL to a mandatory COOL regime decreases (increases) the welfare of consumers with weak (strong) preference for COOL while a change from a voluntary to a mandatory COOL regime leads to an unambiguous loss in consumer welfare.

Labelling on apparel products usually focuses on the country where manufacturing takes place, rather than where the raw materials were obtained. A choice experiment of consumers in three southern US states was conducted to determine preferences and marginal willingness to pay (mWTP) for wool blend sweaters based on fibre origin and country of manufacture. Fibre origin choices were Australia, US and US State, with the latter to investigate consumer interest in local over simply domestic. Manufacturing had two possibilities, US and China. Survey questions were used to determine an average consumer ethnocentric tendency (CET) score for each consumer, and a median split was used to place each into a High or Low CET group. Nested logit models were analysed for both groups, and mWTP estimates were computed from the coefficients. Both CET groups were willing to pay significant premiums for State-produced wool over US wool, and for US wool over Australian wool. However, the Low CET group exhibited lower premiums for fibre origins than their High CET counterparts. Ethnocentric consumers, unlike Low CET consumers, were additionally willing to pay significant premiums for wool blend sweaters knitted in the US vs. those knitted in China. Results suggest that labelling fibre by State or by US origin may allow producers to obtain substantial premiums for their apparel products. Promotion of domestic manufacturing though may only be effective for a smaller set of consumers.

Despite growing evidence about differences in the attitudes and behaviors of consumers in emerging and developed markets, there is little research on the differences in country of origin (COO) effects on their evaluation, behavioral intentions (BIs), and actual purchase of imported products. This paper introduces a new conceptual framework incorporating consumer ethnocentrism (CET), materialism (MAT), and value consciousness (VC) to hypothesize several differences in the influence of COO effects on consumers from developed and emerging markets. A web-based study with 1752 consumers in four countries representing two developed markets (the UK and the USA) and two emerging markets (China and India) shows significant differences in the moderating influence of CET, MAT, and VC on the effects of COO on the evaluations and BIs for a fictitious passenger car brand, and on the actual choice of car brands owned by them. The findings highlight the importance of looking beyond CET at other relevant psychographic variables to understand the differences in motivations underlying consumer perceptions and behavior towards imported products.

In theory, increased globalization should lead to greater openness to different cultures, thereby reducing consumer ethnocentrism and resulting in improved consumer perceptions and behavior with respect to foreign products. However, empirical studies testing the impact of globalization have met with mixed results possibly due to the effects of globalization occurring at different levels in the mind-sets among consumers. This notion of “multi-layered consciousness” and its effects on country of origin image are proposed and tested in a theoretical model incorporating a dynamic theory of globalization, to supplement the conventional theory of country-of-origin effects. As predicted, results showed that country-of-origin image is negatively influenced by consumer ethnocentrism, but is not positively influenced by globalization, despite consumers' self-perceived global mindsets (i.e., positive attitude toward globalization and subsequent global openness).