The aim of this article is to examine the impact of private standards on the Indian marine export industry. Private standards are standards established by large retailers and supermarkets, primarily in developed countries, that impose stricter compliance requirements on exporters. Adherence to these private certifications has become a de facto necessity for exporters seeking to access certain markets. Using a data set that matches private standards adopted by Indian marine firms, collected through a primary survey, with their publicly available financial statements, we find that firms adopt private standards to secure better prices, access new markets and buyers and enhance quality and branding, despite the additional compliance costs and regular audits. Our analysis finds that firm size plays a key role in the adoption of private certifications, with firms in the third to fifth quintiles of total revenue in our sample being more likely to obtain a private certificate. As a result, certification is associated with improved access to export markets and better firm-level outcomes, but also leads to an unequal distribution of trade benefits, with larger firms disproportionately capturing these gains. JEL Codes: F14, L15, Q17, M21
Gupta et al. (Thu,) studied this question.