Departmental Seminar The Effectiveness of International Certification Schemes

Abstract

In recent decades, national and international agreements and regulations have increased, including certification schemes, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and sustainability reporting, with the aim to address global challenges, such as the looting of natural resources and the violation of ethical and sustainability requirements. Whether these efforts have been successful is controversial. One major concern is that such attempts may be little effective in countries with weak governance. In this paper, we study the impact of a commodity certification scheme on armed conflicts in Africa. Our results show that this scheme significantly contributed to a decline in the incidence of armed conflicts in the 2000s.