HIERARCHICAL TRADE.

Commodity trading is typically organized hierarchically: Large‐scale trade takes place at the global price system while individuals trade at local price systems within their countries. Agencies or trading houses establish the link between these different market places. In this paper, we devise a fra...

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Published in:Economic Inquiry Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 1165 - 1185
Main Authors: Gersbach, Hans, Haller, Hans
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Apr2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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          Gersbach, Hans
          Haller, Hans
        affil:
          Professor, CER‐ETH—Center of Economic Research, at ETH Zurich and CEPR, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
          Professor, Department of Economics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061‐0316
      su:
        Commerce
        Resource allocation
        Domestic markets
        Retail industry
        Free trade
      sug:
        subj:
          Commerce
          Resource allocation
          Domestic markets
          Retail industry
          All other miscellaneous store retailers (except beer and wine-making supplies stores)
          All other miscellaneous general merchandise stores
          All Other Miscellaneous Store Retailers (except Tobacco Stores)
          Free trade
      ab: Commodity trading is typically organized hierarchically: Large‐scale trade takes place at the global price system while individuals trade at local price systems within their countries. Agencies or trading houses establish the link between these different market places. In this paper, we devise a framework to study this type of hierarchical trade. We identify the free trade and the autarky equilibrium as polar cases. We show that no other two‐stage market equilibria exist if the commodity space is two‐dimensional. An example demonstrates that other, so‐called <italic>intermediate</italic> equilibria exist for three‐dimensional commodity spaces. We then provide an explicit construction of special classes of intermediate equilibria. Moreover, we study the consequences when some countries control the agency that organizes trade at the global level and we analyze the role of international goods arbitrage. Finally, we show that profit‐maximizing agencies may not promote free trade outcomes. (<italic>JEL</italic> D43, D50, F10)
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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