Download or read book Challenges to Effective Third-party Certification in Environmental Policy written by Tyler Blake Davis and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: However, if any part of this causal chain fails, then the market-based tool may not produce the desired environmental outcomes. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has emerged as a leading club that grants third-party certification for fisheries practices and is often cited as a successful example of a club good aligning incentives to promote sustainable fisheries. A growing body of literature using survey and market-based data has shown consumer preferences for MSC certified goods or other certified sustainable seafood products. However, since the first certification by MSC in 2000 many alternative clubs have entered the market and offer alternative third-party certification of sustainable fishing practices. No research to date has tested the perseverance of MSC price premiums or market share in the face of additional alternative certifications for responsible fisheries. This research is the first attempt to test the impact of varying the number of competing certifications of sustainable fishery practices on benefits to MSC certified firms. This research uses an online stated preference survey (n=610) to test the impact of additional certifications on market share and willingness to pay a 5% premium for MSC certified goods. This research finds that additional certified options decrease the market share for MSC certified goods. These survey results may suggest that benefits to firms in voluntary clubs for environmental practices may lose benefits when there is market entry in the same issue-space. The diluting of benefits to firms in existing clubs may diminish one motivation for firms to remain in voluntarily clubs for environmental practices. The contribution of this dissertation is the expansion of club owner agency within club theory to predict club member behavior and environmental outcomes. The findings of this dissertation suggest that additional entry to the market for clubs may weaken the alignment of incentives between consumer, producer and clubs to predict win-win-win outcomes. If policy makers neglect this fact, then policies intended to create win-win-win outcomes may instead result in lose-lose-lose outcomes where consumers cannot use producer club membership to differentiate between credence attributes, firms producing credence attributes are not rewarded with price premiums or additional market share and public policy outcomes are not achieved.