A comment on “Quality standards, industry structure, and welfare in a global economy”

Abstract Gaigné and Larue ( American Journal of Agricultural Economics 98:1432–1449) examined the welfare implications of quality regulations within an international trade context, employing a general‐equilibrium framework. Their study uses a CES (Constant Elasticity of Substitution) model and finds that stricter public standards might improve welfare. However, this conclusion was actually derived from a partial‐equilibrium analysis. This note conducts a thorough general‐equilibrium analysis and demonstrates that their anticipated outcome does not hold within their CES framework.