Trade, Vertical Production Chain, and Competition Policy

The authors build a trade model that renders tractable the process in which imperfect competition in a country's downstream sector affects the rest of the world through international trade. For this purpose, internationally traded goods are viewed as middle products in the vertical chain of production, in which middle products are produced upstream and transformed into final consumption goods downstream. Suppression of competition in a country's downstream sector may serve as a beggar‐thy‐neighbor policy, increasing that country's own utility while reducing that of its trading partner countries.