Institutional Foundations of Global Markets: The Emergence and Expansion of the Fair Trade Market across Nations and over Time

This research examines the determinants of global market formation and expansion using the case of fair trade from its origins as a market based on idiosyncratic and informal direct sales networks to its formalization as a rationalized governance system. Fair trade is a central component of a growing field of markets based on the social and environmental conditions of production. Fair trade organizations establish and enforce alternative standards of production and distribution processes globally and provide the infrastructure for a market in which value lies in a product's utility and conditions of production. The market spans the globe with producer organizations located in the global South and consumer organizations located in the global North. In three empirical chapters, I test which social forces enable and constrain the formation and expansion of the fair trade market and how the effects of those forces change with changes in the organizational structure of the market. Using an original dataset of all fair trade organizations, I examine (1) the expansion of the global fair trade market from 1961 to 2006, (2) the uneven formation and expansion of fair trade production across the global South from 1970 to 2010, and (3) the spread of consumer markets for fair trade goods across the global North from 1970 to 2010. I employ time series and panel multivariate regression techniques along with qualitative comparative analyses. Overall, I find strong evidence for the institutional foundations of global markets where national connections to global institutions and the reorganization of market relations enable global markets.