BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:unctad.org BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6a511f0643d2c DTSTART:20240703T080000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE DTEND:20240703T110000Z LOCATION:Geneva\, Switzerland\, Switzerland SUMMARY:15th Meeting of the UNCTAD Research Partnership Platform CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, the transformation of the global economic tra ding system has led to the emergence of complex global value chains\, chal lenging policymakers. Food-related global value chains are particularly no table due to their broad impact on efficiency\, safety\, and environmental issues\, affecting stakeholders worldwide. These evolving challenges nece ssitate continuous scrutiny by policymakers in competition and consumer pr otection.The current food system consists of intricate interactions among various stakeholders\, including agricultural input providers\, producers\ , and consumers. These often involve ongoing contracts rather than single transactions\, with economic implications beyond price\, such as quality a ssessment and payment terms\, crucial for competition and consumer protect ion.These diverse stakeholders interact in markets that are often highly c oncentrated\, where informational imperfections are the norm and where pro ducts are often vertically differentiated. Market power at different stage s of the value chain may have different welfare and distributional effects \, depending on whether efficiency gains from vertical coordination (impor tant in the presence of extensive search and contracting costs) and horizo ntal economies of scale result in increased overall welfare and how this i s distributed across the different stakeholders. In particular\, the effec ts of concentration are complex and vary across different agricultural val ue chains\, highlighting the importance for policy purposes of using adequ ate tools to empirically assess whether there is market power abuse or whe ther changes in market concentration\, for example through mergers and acq uisitions\, can require policy actions by competition and consumer protect ion (national or supranational) authorities. Furthermore\, agricultural m arkets face various shocks affecting supply and demand\, which can persist ently alter trade prices and quantities along the value chains. <\;p cl ass="\;text-align-justify\n\nView meeting on unctad.org\nhttps://uncta d.org/meeting/15th-meeting-unctad-research-partnership-platform DTSTAMP:20260710T163414Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR