Authenticity in agriculture, food and resource markets has been an ongoing policy challenge to regulators and food industries, and a major concern to consumers given the complex nature of global food supply chains and the increasing spate of market fraud reports across the world. In a bid to boost their economic return, some firms may engage in illicit activities that comprise authenticity including: adulteration, substitution of substandard products, unapproved enhancements of food products, false and misleading quality claims. Such actions, often times, create negative reputation externalities for other agri-food firms in the sector, and may also result in trade conflicts and border rejections; while consumers incur transaction (search) costs in verifying product attributes due to quality uncertainty. This dissertation focuses on collective reputation and contributes to an understanding of authenticity issues in agri-food and resource markets. The analysis examines the role of industry-led quality assurance systems and evolving technologies in enhancing authenticity signals and reducing information asymmetry in the context of market fraud and collective reputation within food and resource supply chains. This dissertation consists of three papers. Paper 1 examines technological solutions to authenticity issues in the context of international trade. The paper explores the role of an emerging authenticity technology, International Barcode of Life (IBOL) in strengthening the enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES). The focus of the analysis is CITES restrictions on commercial trade in the endangered species tree of Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra). The first paper provides an overview of the applications of the IBOL technology in species identification to date. A graphical partial equilibrium trade model examines three scenarios consisting of adoption of IBOL authenticity technology by a single major importing country, multilateral adoption, and adoption by the exporting country. The scenarios suggest that a threat of multilateral testing for the authenticity of imported rosewood could eliminate cross border commercial trade in the endangered species. Upstream testing and certification of authenticity in the exporting country could increase importers’ confidence and the demand for legally harvested rosewood. The results suggest that technological solutions to authenticity issues in international markets have the potential to reduce quality uncertainty and could act as a complement to regulatory enforcement under CITES. Paper 2 explores the industry-led Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) quality assurance system for Canadian wines to examine how an industry seeks to signal authenticity assurances to protect its collective reputation. Hedonic and Probit models are estimated using data on wine attributes sourced from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Hedonic models examine whether VQA certification, versus other collective and individual reputation signals (region, winery), elicits a price premium. The Probit analysis examines factors that determine a winery’s decision to seek VQA certification for a specific wine. The results suggest that while a number of attributes including VQA certification, percentage alcohol content, sweetness (sugar level), volume of wine supplied and vintage, have a significant influence on the price of wine, VQA adds a premium beyond other signals of reputation (winery and region). The magnitude of the effect of individual and collective reputation on the price of wine differs for the different types/colours of wine. The Probit model results suggest that wineries that supply large volumes of wine (more than 1000 cases) in Ontario and produce icewine and non-blended wines have a higher tendency of seeking VQA status. The results imply that VQA could be used as a shorthand for quality, while premium and reputation driven by authenticity in the wine industry could serve as an incentive for other agri-food industries to establish similar quality assurance systems. Paper 3 examines the incidence of mislabelling and substitution in fish markets using supply, demand and welfare analysis. The paper focuses on incentives for the private sector (retailers) or a third party to adopt IBOL technology to protect their reputation and for supply chain monitoring. The feasibility of IBOL technology for a typical retail store in Canada is assessed using a simple simulation analysis. The analysis suggests that the costs of switching to the IBOL system, the number of retailers already using the technology and their market shares are likely to influence a retailer’s adoption of the technology. The ease of catching cheaters along the fish supply chain through third party monitoring is expected to depend on the accuracy of the technology in detecting fraud, the sampling frequency (rate) and rate of species substitution; while enforcement of legal penalties and other costs would serve as a disincentive to cheat as these costs negatively affect expected profit. The simulation analysis suggests that presently IBOL technology appears to be feasible for a typical retail store in Canada if testing is done in an external facility, but may not be feasible if fixed and other costs associated with the IBOL system are considered. The paper suggests that reducing the size of the technology to a hand-held tool and coordination of small scale retailers are potential ways to make the technology affordable and expand its use.

This dissertation presents four essays. The first chapter builds a real-options, term structure model of the firm incorporating stochastic volatility and endogenous default to shed new light on the value premium, financial distress, momentum, and credit spread puzzles. The paper uses recently developed methodologies based on asymptotic expansions to solve the model. The second chapter, coauthored with Adam Guren, presents a model that shows how foreclosures can exacerbate a housing bust and delay the housing market's recovery. Quantitatively, the model successfully explains aggregate and retail price declines, the foreclosure share of volume, and the number of foreclosures both nationwide and across MSAs. The third and fourth chapters, coauthored with Stephen W. Salant and Jason Winfree, discuss the economics of untraceable experience goods in a variety of settings. The third chapter drops the "small country" assumption in the trade literature on collective reputation and shows how large exporters like China can address severe problems assuring the quality of its exports. The fourth chapter demonstrates how regulations in the formal sector of developing countries can lead to a quality gap between formal and informal sector goods. It moreover investigates how changes in regulation affect quality, price, aggregate production, and the number of firms in each sector. / Economics

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru H. Peterson / Alexander E. Saak / Notable changes are occurring in the U.S. organic food sector. First, the U.S. organic food system is increasingly relying on imports, because the expansion in the organic production has failed to satisfactorily meet the rapidly growing demand for organic foods. Second, the “locally grown” concept has become appealing to consumers, with some evidence of consumers switching from certified organic foods to local, conventional foods. Third, organic food has penetrated the mass-market channel, and organic foods are no longer being sold exclusively in natural product stores. And fourth, the social and environmental awareness among consumers is increasing. Thus, consumers are also willing to pay a price premium to support small farmers. To understand how these changes are affecting the demand for organic foods, this study used survey data to assess U.S. consumers‟ preferences for fresh organic apples that are sourced from various places and from supply chain operations that vary in scale. The survey was administered via the Internet to a random sample of 285 households across the U.S through a research company. Choice experiment was selected as the valuation method. Results indicate that among the levels of the location attributes, the “locally grown” label was associated with the highest average WTP. The “regionally grown” was the second most preferred, “U.S. grown” the third, and “imported” the least. The “locally grown” label was valued higher than the “certified organic label”. Also, consumers were willing to pay a higher value for apples produced on a small farm compared to those from a large farm. However, they did not distinguish the type of retail outlets where apples were offered. The analysis incorporating the effects of consumer characteristics suggest that the perceived importance of public benefits impacted the values of origin attributes more than the private ones; the type of retail outlet attributes became significant among certain gender and age segments; and the value of small farm attribute increased with consumers‟ income. Finally, results from a theoretical model suggest that the variability in the WTP obtained among the origin attributes could be explained by the reputation of product quality depending on their origin.

Reputação tornou-se, no contexto contemporâneo, um valor que norteia os discursos e as atitudes de organizações e indivíduos na contemporaneidade. Para as organizações capitalistas tornou-se um ativo de geração e manutenção do seu valor de capital numa ambiência cada vez mais orientada pela intangibilidade, imaterialidade e no entendimento das significações produzidas pelos variados sujeitos contemporâneos integrados pelas redes de relacionamento virtuais suportadas pelas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação-TICs. O grande objeto tranformador dessa realidade, a comunicação, tornou-a um instrumento de poder e validador de legitimidade, inclusão ou exclusão. Ela tornou-se processo, saindo de sua ação funcional para exercer àquela demandada pelas organizações: a de agente de interação, entendimento e do nível de porosidade interna do entendimento das significações e demandas do ambiente externo. A pesquisa conduzida neste estudo projeta reputação sob as interpretações e as essências surgidas das falas dos sujeitos gestores das organizações, das classes e daqueles em interação em ambiente virtual de uma rede colaborativa, comparadas à norma e ao discurso global do Reputation Institute. Buscou-se entendimento sob a ótica dos individuos gestores da Comunicação e da Comunicação bem como das classes que os representam. Procurou-se tambem entender como o termo se manifesta na contemporaneidade, a partir do levantamento dos estudos produzidos no Brasil e em quais campos eles mais são produzidos. Com relação aos sujeitos organizacionais foram considerados os da gestão da Comunicação Corporativa, da gestão de Marca e Comunicação Institucional e da gestão de Relação com Investidores do Itaú- Unibanco; o gestor de Marketing/Comunicação e do negócio da Lecom-Comunicação Digital; da Comunicação Corporativa da SAP Brasil; representantes da Abracom-Associação Brasileira das Agências de Comunicação, do Conrerp/Sudeste/Sul-Conselho Regional de Relações Publicas e do IBRI-Instituto Brasileiro de Relações com Investidores. Reputação se manifesta, na pesquisa, como norma. Ela apresenta indicadores para uma gestão diferenciada de reputação, a partir das essências dos sujeitos participantes. Como norma, reputação se mostra como instrumento que assegura o controle de comportamentos de forma a alinhar práticas e discursos e atitudes que garantam confiança e credibilidade de acionistas, investidores, publicos de relacionamento e da sociedade. Na integração de todos os sujeitos, o estudo mostrou que é possível a arquitetura de um modelo gestor de reputação integrador sustentado nas variaveis humanas, que leve à evolução de todos os sujeitos a partir dos valores e normas que permeiam cada agrupamento e a partir do qual gera confiança e pode tornar a organização referencial de construção de novos valores e padrões normativos integrados / Reputation has become in a contemporary context, a value that guides speeches and attitudes of organizations and individuals in the contemporary present. For capitalist organizations it has turned in an asset of generation and maintenance of its capital value in an ambience of increasing orientation by intangibility, immateriality and understanding of meanings produced by varied contemporary actual subjects integrated by virtual relationships networks supported by Communication and Information Technologies - CITs. The great transforming object of this reality, the communication, it made the communication an instrument of power and a legitimacy, inclusion or exclusion validator. It has changed to a process, moving from its functional action role to perform those demanded by organizations such as: agent of interaction, and of the level of understanding internal porosity of the meanings and demands of the external environment. The research led in this tesis highlights reputation under interpretations and essences extracted from organizations managing subjects, their representative classes and those interacting in a collaborative virtual environment network speeches, compared to the standard and the global discourse of the Reputation Institute. The understanding was based on the perspective of Communication and the Capital Management individuals. Also sought to understand how the term is manifested (expressed) in contemporary times currently, based on the researches produced in Brazil and in which fields they are produced more , available in the research environment google. Regarding to organizational subjects this reseach considered the Management of Corporate Communications , Brand and Corporate Communications Management and Management Itaú Unibanco Investors Relationship; Manager of Marketing /Communications and Business of Lecom - Comunicação Digital; Corporate Communication of SAP Brazil; representatives of Abracom - Associação Brasileira das Agências de Comunicação; CONRERP / South East / Southern -Conselho Regional de Relações Públicas and IBRI - Instituto Brasileiro de Relações com Investidores. Reputation is manifested in the research as a norma. It presents elements for a noteworthy reputation management, based on the essences of the participating subjects. As a norm, reputation is seen as a path to ensure control of behaviors in order to align practices, discourses and attitudes to assure confidence and trust of shareholders, investors , stakeholders and society . The study demonstrated that is possible to design an integrating reputation management model supported by human variables and subjects integration, leading to the evolution of all subjects based on the values and standards instilled in each group and from which can generate confidence and may place the organization as a reference leader for new values and integrated normative standards

Reputação tornou-se, no contexto contemporâneo, um valor que norteia os discursos e as atitudes de organizações e indivíduos na contemporaneidade. Para as organizações capitalistas tornou-se um ativo de geração e manutenção do seu valor de capital numa ambiência cada vez mais orientada pela intangibilidade, imaterialidade e no entendimento das significações produzidas pelos variados sujeitos contemporâneos integrados pelas redes de relacionamento virtuais suportadas pelas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação-TICs. O grande objeto tranformador dessa realidade, a comunicação, tornou-a um instrumento de poder e validador de legitimidade, inclusão ou exclusão. Ela tornou-se processo, saindo de sua ação funcional para exercer àquela demandada pelas organizações: a de agente de interação, entendimento e do nível de porosidade interna do entendimento das significações e demandas do ambiente externo. A pesquisa conduzida neste estudo projeta reputação sob as interpretações e as essências surgidas das falas dos sujeitos gestores das organizações, das classes e daqueles em interação em ambiente virtual de uma rede colaborativa, comparadas à norma e ao discurso global do Reputation Institute. Buscou-se entendimento sob a ótica dos individuos gestores da Comunicação e da Comunicação bem como das classes que os representam. Procurou-se tambem entender como o termo se manifesta na contemporaneidade, a partir do levantamento dos estudos produzidos no Brasil e em quais campos eles mais são produzidos. Com relação aos sujeitos organizacionais foram considerados os da gestão da Comunicação Corporativa, da gestão de Marca e Comunicação Institucional e da gestão de Relação com Investidores do Itaú- Unibanco; o gestor de Marketing/Comunicação e do negócio da Lecom-Comunicação Digital; da Comunicação Corporativa da SAP Brasil; representantes da Abracom-Associação Brasileira das Agências de Comunicação, do Conrerp/Sudeste/Sul-Conselho Regional de Relações Publicas e do IBRI-Instituto Brasileiro de Relações com Investidores. Reputação se manifesta, na pesquisa, como norma. Ela apresenta indicadores para uma gestão diferenciada de reputação, a partir das essências dos sujeitos participantes. Como norma, reputação se mostra como instrumento que assegura o controle de comportamentos de forma a alinhar práticas e discursos e atitudes que garantam confiança e credibilidade de acionistas, investidores, publicos de relacionamento e da sociedade. Na integração de todos os sujeitos, o estudo mostrou que é possível a arquitetura de um modelo gestor de reputação integrador sustentado nas variaveis humanas, que leve à evolução de todos os sujeitos a partir dos valores e normas que permeiam cada agrupamento e a partir do qual gera confiança e pode tornar a organização referencial de construção de novos valores e padrões normativos integrados / Reputation has become in a contemporary context, a value that guides speeches and attitudes of organizations and individuals in the contemporary present. For capitalist organizations it has turned in an asset of generation and maintenance of its capital value in an ambience of increasing orientation by intangibility, immateriality and understanding of meanings produced by varied contemporary actual subjects integrated by virtual relationships networks supported by Communication and Information Technologies - CITs. The great transforming object of this reality, the communication, it made the communication an instrument of power and a legitimacy, inclusion or exclusion validator. It has changed to a process, moving from its functional action role to perform those demanded by organizations such as: agent of interaction, and of the level of understanding internal porosity of the meanings and demands of the external environment. The research led in this tesis highlights reputation under interpretations and essences extracted from organizations managing subjects, their representative classes and those interacting in a collaborative virtual environment network speeches, compared to the standard and the global discourse of the Reputation Institute. The understanding was based on the perspective of Communication and the Capital Management individuals. Also sought to understand how the term is manifested (expressed) in contemporary times currently, based on the researches produced in Brazil and in which fields they are produced more , available in the research environment google. Regarding to organizational subjects this reseach considered the Management of Corporate Communications , Brand and Corporate Communications Management and Management Itaú Unibanco Investors Relationship; Manager of Marketing /Communications and Business of Lecom - Comunicação Digital; Corporate Communication of SAP Brazil; representatives of Abracom - Associação Brasileira das Agências de Comunicação; CONRERP / South East / Southern -Conselho Regional de Relações Públicas and IBRI - Instituto Brasileiro de Relações com Investidores. Reputation is manifested in the research as a norma. It presents elements for a noteworthy reputation management, based on the essences of the participating subjects. As a norm, reputation is seen as a path to ensure control of behaviors in order to align practices, discourses and attitudes to assure confidence and trust of shareholders, investors , stakeholders and society . The study demonstrated that is possible to design an integrating reputation management model supported by human variables and subjects integration, leading to the evolution of all subjects based on the values and standards instilled in each group and from which can generate confidence and may place the organization as a reference leader for new values and integrated normative standards