%0 Report
        %A Brown, Caitlin
%A Tommasi, Denni
        %T Quality Upgrading in the Street Food Market: Is Better Equipment and Training Sufficient?
        %D 2025
        %8 2025 Dec
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18328
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18328
        %X We study quality upgrading in informal markets through two experiments with street-food vendors and consumers in India. First, we define quality in terms of food safety and develop a context-specific measurement framework. Second, we show that consumers are willing to pay substantial premiums for cleanliness. Third, we implement a vendor-level intervention that lowers upgrading costs and enhances the ability to signal quality through sanitation-related equipment. The intervention improves food-safety practices and profits, but effects are modest and fade over time. Fixed pricing norms and local environmental constraints appear central, consistent with a moral hazard model where cleanliness is not profitable.
        %K hygiene practices
%K consumer preferences
%K randomized experiment
%K food safety
%K informal markets
%K street food
%K quality upgrading
%K moral hazard
%K subsidy effectiveness
%K signaling
%K developing countries