Regulation, Living Cost, and Economic Welfare: a Comparative Analysis of Japanese and U.S. Food Labeling Systems

K. Furuya

Working Papers from California Irvine - School of Social Sciences

Abstract: This paper explores the positive and normative effects of regulations governing the disclosure of product information. As an example, a Japanese food labeling system which requires explicit display of expiration dates is compared with a U.S. system which permits the encoding of expiration dates. The paper shows that, when the sellers cannot price-discriminate items with different shelf ages, the Japanese system will lead to a greater amount of wastage and a higher price that the U.S. system. The welfare ranking is generally indeterminate, but the Japanese system could sometimes yield lower economic welfare by interacting with the pre-existing price distortions.

Keywords: FOOD; LABELLING; CONSUMPTION; INFORMATION; SOCIAL POLICY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D18 L51 M11 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2000
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:calirv:99-00-26

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