IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecinqu/v56y2018i2p1165-1184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hierarchical Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Hans Gersbach
  • Hans Haller

Abstract

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 intermediate 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. (JEL D43, D50, F10)

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Gersbach & Hans Haller, 2018. "Hierarchical Trade," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1165-1184, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:56:y:2018:i:2:p:1165-1184
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12513
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecin.12513?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Sousa, José & Mayer, Thierry & Zignago, Soledad, 2012. "Market access in global and regional trade," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1037-1052.
    2. Yun, Kwan Koo, 1995. "Structure of Distortion Equilibria and Welfare in a Multiregional Economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 5(3), pages 491-512, May.
    3. Andrew Atkeson & Ariel Burstein, 2008. "Pricing-to-Market, Trade Costs, and International Relative Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1998-2031, December.
    4. Geanakoplos, John & Mas-Colell, Andreu, 1989. "Real indeterminacy with financial assets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 22-38, February.
    5. Debreu, Gerard, 1970. "Economies with a Finite Set of Equilibria," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(3), pages 387-392, May.
    6. Engel, Charles & Rogers, John H, 1996. "How Wide Is the Border?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1112-1125, December.
    7. Yongmin Chen & Keith Maskus, 2005. "Vertical Pricing and Parallel Imports," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18.
    8. Citanna, Alessandro & Cres, Herve & Dreze, Jacques & Herings, P. Jean-Jacques & Villanacci, Antonio, 2001. "Continua of underemployment equilibria reflecting coordination failures, also at Walrasian prices," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 169-200, December.
    9. Costas Arkolakis & Arnaud Costinot & Andres Rodriguez-Clare, 2012. "New Trade Models, Same Old Gains?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 94-130, February.
    10. Matthias Lutz, 2004. "Pricing in Segmented Markets, Arbitrage Barriers, and the Law of One Price: Evidence from the European Car Market," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 456-475, August.
    11. Keith E. Maskus & Yongmin Chen, 2004. "Vertical Price Control and Parallel Imports: Theory and Evidence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 551-570, September.
    12. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    13. Ganslandt, Mattias & Maskus, Keith E., 2007. "Vertical distribution, parallel trade, and price divergence in integrated markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 943-970, May.
    14. David Hummels, 2007. "Transportation Costs and International Trade in the Second Era of Globalization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 131-154, Summer.
    15. Maskus, Keith E. & Stähler, Frank, 2014. "Retailers as agents and the limits of parallel trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 186-196.
    16. Bell, Clive, 2003. "Development Policy as Public Finance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198773672.
    17. Herings, P. Jean-Jacques, 1998. "On the existence of a continuum of constrained equilibria1," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 257-273, October.
    18. Koutsougeras, Leonidas C., 2003. "Non-Walrasian equilibria and the law of one price," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 169-175, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hans Gersbach & Hans Haller, 2007. "Hierarchical Trade and Endogenous Price Distortions," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 07/72, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.

    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. Kazuko Kano & Takashi Kano & Kazutaka Takechi, 2012. "Nonparametric Identification and Estimation of the Number of Components in Multivariate Mixtures," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd12-246, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Kano, Kazuko & 加納, 和子 & Kano, Takashi & 加納, 隆 & Takechi, Kazutaka & 武智, 一貴, 2013. "The Price of Distance: Producer Heterogeneity, Pricing to Market, and Geographic Barriers," Discussion Papers 2013-03, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    3. KANO Kazuko & KANO Takashi & TAKECHI Kazutaka, 2015. "The Price of Distance: Pricing to market, producer heterogeneity, and geographic barriers," Discussion papers 15017, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Dvir, Eyal & Strasser, Georg, 2018. "Does marketing widen borders? Cross-country price dispersion in the European car market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 134-149.
    5. Laura Birg, 2015. "Externalities of National Pharmaceutical Policy when Markets are Integrated through Parallel Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 558-574, August.
    6. Michel Fouquin & Jules Hugot, 2016. "Back to the Future: International Trade Costs and the Two Globalizations," Vniversitas Económica 15130, Universidad Javeriana - Bogotá.
    7. Drèze, Jacques H. & Herings, P. Jean-Jacques, 2008. "Sequentially complete markets remain incomplete," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 445-447, September.
    8. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2019. "Brands in Motion: How Frictions Shape Multinational Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3073-3124, September.
    9. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2013. "Innis Lecture: What separates us? Sources of resistance to globalization," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(4), pages 1196-1231, November.
    10. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2013. "What separates us? Sources of resistance to globalization," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1196-1231, November.
    11. Li, Hai & Shao, Jing & Zhu, Stuart X., 2018. "Parallel importation in a supply Chain: The impact of gray market structure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 220-241.
    12. Hoste, J. & Verboven, F., 2024. "Uncovering the Sources of Cross-border Market Segmentation: Evidence from the EU and the US," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2402, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Laura Birg, 2023. "Parallel imports under a manufacturer rebate and a price freeze: Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 302-323, February.
    14. Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2010. "Commodity taxation and parallel imports," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 153-162, February.
    15. Ishikawa, Jota & Morita, Hodaka & Mukunoki, Hiroshi, 2020. "Parallel imports and repair services," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 137-160.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/mlkvtnbqe9pg8nsvf612mcnbs is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Yulin Hou & Yun Wang & Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2023. "Gravity channels in trade," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 37-65, January.
    18. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2008. "Understanding International Price Differences Using Barcode Data," NBER Working Papers 14017, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Eichberger, Jürgen & Mueller-Langer, Frank, 2012. "On the Welfare Effects of Exclusive Distribution Arrangements," MPRA Paper 39691, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Maskus, Keith E. & Stähler, Frank, 2014. "Retailers as agents and the limits of parallel trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 186-196.
    21. Olena Ivus & Edwin L.-C. Lai, 2017. "Patent Exhaustion Regime and International Production Sharing: Winner and Losers?," CESifo Working Paper Series 6644, CESifo.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General

    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:bla:ecinqu:v:56:y:2018:i:2:p:1165-1184. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.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.