China Food Labeling Institution On Perspective Of Governing Instruments

Government's intervention in food labeling lays a legal basis to solve asymmetric information,imperfect information and externalities.As one of governing instruments,the labeling system can lead collective actions between stakeholders to link up and down.This paper explores the relationship between institution boundary and governance,which provide new ideas to solve the practical problems.This study uses qualitative research methods to respond to research topics by sorting out documents related to laws and regulations,comparing food labels,analyzing cases,and summarizing interviews with production entities and consumers.From perspective of governing instrument,this paper focus on the development,mechanism and overflow effect of information instrument in the field of public management.It is unfolded with the main line of institution's boundary.The labeling system has evolved from private to public.The establishment of institutional goals has evolved from one object to a multi-objective system.The development of multi-goals system is orient in line with the direction of sustainable development of society.The shift in the focus of institutional goals has promoted changes in the boundary between mandatory content and voluntary content.Second,the governance mechanism is passing information.The final object is consumer.Information labeling is characterized with consumer-oriented and market-oriented,so its regulatory effect is relatively week.It is necessary to work with other instruments to avoid this shortcoming.Third,government intervention is mainly divided into two categories.One is direct intervention,and another is indirect intervention.The advantage of direct intervention is more effective,and the government plays a role in controlling it.Whether the direct intervention is fully or not is constrained by market factors.Indirect intervention is that the third-party manages the certification marks.The main problems of indirect intervention are the third-party rent-seeking under the principal-agent relationship,the inability of the entrusting party to effectively implement supervision due to incomplete information.The method of government intervention depends on the relationship between the labeling content and the target of the system.The mandatory content in direct intervention is closely related to the institution target.The voluntary content is that information not connected with basic food safety.Government tends to play role in supervision and punishing.Fourth,when the public interest goals conflict with private interest producers would redefine the policy by using the informal procedure in formal regulations.Fifth,the standardized formal institution and the heterogeneity of consumers creates the room for informal food labeling practice,which protect the small scale producer,embodying social connection mechanism,inheriting the local knowledge.It leaves institutional flexibility for formal institutions.Hope has made up for consumer expectations that the formal institution cannot achieve.The informal system has eased the conflict between the formal system's standardization and local diversity.Finally,the governance boundary is not unchangedable.It is the result of constant balance and compromise under the influence of various stakeholders,society and market forces.The boundary of the system is constantly adjusted.