#11472. Contracting for Terroir in Sake

August 2026publication date
Proposal available till 23-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

The title of the journal is available only for the authors who have already paid for
Journal’s subject area:
Law;
Social Sciences (all);
Places in the authors’ list:
place 1place 2place 3place 4
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Contract №11472.1 Contract №11472.2 Contract №11472.3 Contract №11472.4
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2 place - free (for sale)
3 place - free (for sale)
4 place - free (for sale)

Abstract:
Over the last century, consumers have steadily lost their taste for sake. In this environment, a small group of enterprising regional brewers began to create a market for premium sake with the environmental variations so important to French terroir. To produce this terroir sake, brewers must convince local farmers to grow high-risk and high-cost varieties of rice optimized for premium sake. Yet the parties almost never draft elaborate contracts with verifiable terms, and rarely vertically integrate. Instead, they build dense and refined networks of social capital among themselves and combine short-term renewable (and hence terminable) contracts, extremely high (efficiency-wage level) prices, and close monitoring by the brewer. The brewers and farmers neither draft elaborate contracts nor vertically integrate for a simple reason: they do not need to do so. The combination of dense networks of social capital, terminable short-term contracts, and high prices gives them all the flexibility they need.
Keywords:
Regional brewers; farmers; renewable contracts; high prices; networks

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