BC3 seminar: Green Public Procurement and Organic Food Policy in Sweden

BC3 Seminars
“Green Public Procurement and Organic Food Policy in Sweden – responses of the public and the private sector and possible implications thereof “

PhD Student  Hanna Lindström

Department of Economics

Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics (Sweden)

Abstract:

Increasing organic food production has earned increasing attention during the last decades by EU and Swedish policy makers alike. Green Public Procurement is seen as a useful tool to shape consumption and production trends, increase demand for organic food and thereby alter the market structure in favor of organic food. However, the impact of a green procurement policy is an empirical question and depends on market characteristics such as the size of public consumption in the particular market, the supply elasticities of producers and other intermediate actors, and demand elasticities of private consumers. In this seminar, I will present some previous, ongoing and future research by me and my colleagues that relates to green public procurement in general, and organic food policy in particular.

About the Lecturer

I started my PhD education in 2017 and am currently employed at the Department of Economics at the Umeå School of Business and Economics and Statistics at Umeå University. My thesis is linked to a project which is financed by the Swedish Competition Authority and headed by associate professor Sofia Lundberg. The aim of the project is to empirically study the implementation and effects of a voluntary policy of organic food procurement launched in 2006 by the Swedish Government. Research questions within and related to this project include i) the effect of public organic food procurement on domestic organic agricultural production, ii) the factors determining policy uptake among Swedish municipalities, iii) the implementation of the policy on municipal level, iv) private consumption of organic food – organic price premiums and demand elasticities, and v) responses to organic food demand by intermediate actors in the producer chain.