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Standard-setting activities and new institutional economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2017

ARMELLE MAZÉ
ARMELLE MAZÉ*
Affiliation:
Université Paris-Saclay, INRA SADAPT, AgroParisTech, Paris, France
*
*Email: armelle.maze@agroparistech.fr
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Abstract

From a New Institutional Economics (NIE) perspective, standards are acknowledged to play a central role in building efficient market infrastructure by defining what is exchanged and reducing the level of transaction and measurement costs. Nevertheless, only a few prior NIE studies have considered standard-setting activities as coordination and governance issues per se. This article aims to fill this gap by adapting and extending the classical Williamsonian analytical framework to the governance of standard-setting institutions. This analysis is substantiated by empirical data on global private standards in the agricultural sector. Our results highlight the importance of standard selection and the limits to current harmonisation as regards institutional failure to define alternative multilateral governance mechanisms at the international level.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 599 - 621
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2017 

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