Price premiums for geographical indication under the coexistence of self‐claims and certification

Abstract As the popularity of geographical indication (GI) grows in developing countries, the coexistence of GI self‐claims and certification has become widespread. This study focusses on the Chinese rice market and explores the market performance of GI self‐claims and certification. The findings indicate that while GI self‐claims can generate price premiums, these are lower than those generated by GI certification. In the mid‐to‐high‐end rice market, GI self‐claims barely succeed to generate any price premium, whereas GI certification maintains its competitiveness. Notably, there is heterogeneity in the price premiums of different types of GI self‐claims and certification. On the one hand, only indirect self‐claims, which utilise origin information denoted by a GI label, can generate a price premium. On the other hand, GI certification promoted in earlier years or with more stringent certification standards generates higher price premiums. There is no clear evidence suggesting that a higher number of GI certificates corresponds to higher price premiums.