The Economics of Chocolate

This book, written by global experts, provides a comprehensive and topical analysis on the economics of chocolate. While the main approach is economic analysis, there are important contributions from other disciplines, including psychology, history, government, nutrition, and geography. The chapters are organized around several themes, including the history of cocoa and chocolate -- from cocoa drinks in the Maya empire to the growing sales of Belgian chocolates in China; how governments have used cocoa and chocolate as a source of tax revenue and have regulated chocolate (and defined it by law) to protect consumers' health from fraud and industries from competition; how the poor cocoa producers in developing countries are linked through trade and multinational companies with rich consumers in industrialized countries; and how the rise of consumption in emerging markets (China, India, and Africa) is causing a major boom in global demand and prices, and a potential shortage of the world's chocolate.

Mara P. Squicciarini, Post-Doctoral researcher, LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven; Research Fellow, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO),Johan Swinnen,Professor of Economics and Director, LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven

Mara P. Squicciarini is a Post-Doctoral researcher at the LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at the University of Leuven and a Research Fellow at the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). She was visiting researcher at Stanford University and at the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. She holds a PhD from University of Leuven, a Master of Science from Bocconi University and a Master of Research from Universite Catholique de Louvain. She has published in peer-reviewed academic journals, among which Science and Nature.


Johan Swinnen is Professor of Economics and Director of the LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at the University of Leuven; a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University; and President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists and of The Beeronomics Society. He has published widely on global food security, political economy, institutional reform, trade, global value chains, and product standards. His books includeQuality Standards, Value Chains and International Development, Political Power andEconomic Policy, From Marx and Mao to the Market, and The Economics of Beer.