Economist: Paying extra for fair-trade coffee-coffee
labeled with the Fairtrade logo-is intended to help
poor farmers, because they receive a higher price for
the fair-trade coffee they grow. But this practice may
hurt more farmers in developing nations than it helps.
By raising average prices for coffee, it encourages
more coffee to be produced than consumers want to
buy. This lowers prices for non-fair-trade coffee and
thus lowers profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers.
To evaluate the strength of the economist's argument,
it would be most helpful to know which of the following?