IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejmic/v17y2025i1p41-65.html

The Inner Workings of a Hub-and-Spoke Cartel in the Automotive Fuel Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Chaves
  • Marco Duarte

Abstract

We study the inner workings of a hub-and-spoke cartel in the Brazilian automotive fuel industry. Based on court documents and detailed price and sales data, we discuss how gas station owners (spokes) operating inside the federal capital received help from fuel distributors (hub) to reduce dispersion of and increase gasoline's retail price. We provide evidence that distributor cartel members benefited by raising wholesale prices while keeping competitors from supplying retail cartel members. We also provide theoretical foundations and empirical evidence for a new mechanism through which hubs help spokes: smoothing cost fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Chaves & Marco Duarte, 2025. "The Inner Workings of a Hub-and-Spoke Cartel in the Automotive Fuel Industry," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 41-65, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:41-65
    DOI: 10.1257/mic.20210250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20210250
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20210250.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20210250.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/mic.20210250?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Clark & Jean-Fran?ois Houde, 2013. "Collusion with Asymmetric Retailers: Evidence from a Gasoline Price-Fixing Case," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 97-123, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suguru Otani, 2024. "Industry Dynamics with Cartels: The Case of the Container Shipping Industry," Discussion Paper Series DP2024-28, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    2. Emilie Dargaud & Armel Jacques, 2020. "Slowdown antitrust investigations by decentralization," Working Papers halshs-02613352, HAL.
    3. Lucas W. Davis, Shaun Mcrae, and Enrique Seira Bejarano, 2019. "An Economic Perspective on Mexico's Nascent Deregulation of Retail Petroleum Markets," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    4. Rrukaj, Ritvana & Steen, Frode, 2024. "Asymmetric cost transmission and market power in retail gasoline markets," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 8/2024, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    5. Benjamin Atkinson, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas S. West, 2014. "Daily Price Cycles and Constant Margins: Recent Events in Canadian Gasoline Retailing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    6. Stephanie Assad & Robert Clark & Daniel Ershov & Lei Xu, 2020. "Algorithmic Pricing and Competition: Empirical Evidence from the German Retail Gasoline Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 8521, CESifo.
    7. Stephanie Assad & Emilio Calvano & Giacomo Calzolari & Robert Clark & Vincenzo Denicolò & Daniel Ershov & Justin Johnson & Sergio Pastorello & Andrew Rhodes & Lei Xu & Matthijs Wildenbeest, 2021. "Autonomous algorithmic collusion: economic research and policy implications," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 459-478.
    8. Mark Dijkstra & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2019. "State-aided Price Coordination in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-014/VII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 13 Jul 2019.
    9. Escobar, Juan F. & Llanes, Gastón, 2018. "Cooperation dynamics in repeated games of adverse selection," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 408-443.
    10. Éric Avenel & Stéphane Caprice, 2018. "Collusion et possibilité d’entrée en aval dans une industrie verticalement intégrée," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 69(1), pages 5-28.
    11. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Perdiguero, Jordi, 2020. "Pay cycles and fuel price: a quasi experimental approach," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1288, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    12. Korff, Alex, 2021. "Competition on the fast lane: The price structure of homogeneous retail gasoline stations," DICE Discussion Papers 359, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    13. Dechenaux, Emmanuel & Mago, Shakun D., 2019. "Communication and side payments in a duopoly with private costs: An experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 157-184.
    14. Porter, Robert H., 2020. "Mergers and coordinated effects," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    15. Clark, Robert & Coviello, Decio & de Leverano, Adriano, 2020. "Complementary bidding and the collusive arrangement: Evidence from an antitrust investigation," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-052, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Robert Clark & Ignatius Horstmann & Jean-François Houde, 2021. "Hub and Spoke Cartels: Theory and Evidence from the Grocery Industry," NBER Working Papers 29253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Sylvain Chassang & Kei Kawai & Jun Nakabayashi & Juan Ortner, 2019. "Data Driven Regulation: Theory and Application to Missing Bids," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2019-04, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    18. Zhang, Xiao-Bing & Fei, Yinxin & Zheng, Ying & Zhang, Lei, 2020. "Price ceilings as focal points to reach price uniformity: Evidence from a Chinese gasoline market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    19. Hanspach, Philip & Sapi, Geza & Wieting, Marcel, 2024. "Algorithms in the marketplace: An empirical analysis of automated pricing in e-commerce," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Nicolas de Roos & Vladimir Smirnov, 2020. "Collusion with intertemporal price dispersion," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(1), pages 158-188, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L32 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
    • L71 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:41-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.