Tomas Konecny

Fair Trade - Is it Really Fair?

One of the arguments against the Fair Trade scheme is that the guaranteed minimum price tends to depress world prices and thus the incomes of non-participating farmers (e.g. The Economist, 2006). We develop a model that distinguishes between the impact of the introduction of a Fair Trade market per se and the effect of minimum price policies given that a Fair Trade market actually exists. The model suggests that the claims against Fair Trade might not be correct. The introduction of a Fair Trade market may increase the incomes of both participating and non-participating farmers. The minimum contracting price as part of Fair Trade standards, however, precludes the full realization of the program’s potential benefits. The minimum price also paradoxically increases the profits of the middlemen whose local monopsony power the Fair Trade scheme originally aimed to retrench. Furthermore, the total surplus generated by Fair Trade cooperatives declines as the guaranteed price increases.

Student Financing, Opportunity Growth, and Equity In Access to Higher Education; A Czech-Dutch Comparative Study of Student Support Systems

This article explores the possible effects of student financing on the development of inequalities in access to higher education. Though it is recognized that financial issues like tuition fees and student support are only a few among the many factors that influence student choice and access, financial policies are an important instrument that can influence student choice. This article analyzes the impact of financial conditions on higher education participation among students from different socio-economic backgrounds by comparing the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. These are two countries with important similarities and differences in education systems, student financing and participation patterns in higher education. It is found that the context of steadily increasing tuition fees, accompanied by an efficient student support system (the case of the Netherlands), does not generate inequalities in access, whereas a tuition free system accompanied by mainly indirect (parent-based) student support did not manage to reduce high inequalities in participation after the fall of the communist regime in the Czech Republic.