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The Origins of State Pure Food Regulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2004

MARC T. LAW
MARC T. LAW
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Vermont, Old Mill Building, 94 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405-0114. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Why did state governments begin to regulate the food industry in the late nineteenth century? One possible explanation is that pure food regulation was the result of rent seeking on the part of traditional food producers who wanted to limit the availability of new substitutes. Another potential hypothesis is that regulation was desired because it helped solve an asymmetric information problem in the market for food products. I find the evidence to be more consistent with the latter hypothesis.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 1103 - 1130
Copyright
© 2003 The Economic History Association

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