ABSTRACT
Environmental quality standards and eco-labeling are essential elements in the ongoing discussion on the interplay between firms, consumers and regulatory authorities. These aspects of course go along with the development of environmental awareness on the part of consumers and firms, with bidirectional feedback effects which will be the specific subject of Chapters 5 and 6. Here, my purpose will be to offer a summary of the literature examining minimum quality standard regulation and other forms of public interventions inmarkets where green consumerism is not made explicit and product quality maintains a predominantly hedonic characterization, in line with an older debate that has consolidated itself as a component of the theory of industrial organization. The chapter consists of three parts.
