This paper compares two possible formats for free trade in the Americas: a system of spokes surrounding a U.S. hub, and a free trade area. The paper identifies the sources of welfare change, and it argues that a country's attitude towards a system depends on whether the arrangement is a...

Wholesale-retail hub and spoke cartels usually combine a horizontal collusive behaviour between competitors and the involvement of at least one hub, who operates at a different level of the supply chain and facilitates the collusion, and some forms of vertical restraints, typically RPM or, in...

Numerous recently uncovered cartels operated along the supply chain, with firms at one end facilitating collusion at the other - hub-and-spoke arrangements. These cartels are hard to rationalize because they induce double marginalization and higher costs. We examine Canada's alleged bread cartel...

We analyze a hub-and-spoke cartel in the Brazilian automotive fuel industry. Using the court documents and detailed data on the supply chain we uncover three mechanisms beyond information sharing used by wholesalers (hub) to help retailers (spokes) solve the obstacles of price coordination:...

Numerous recently uncovered cartels operated along the supply chain, with firms at one end facilitating collusion at the other - hub-and-spoke arrangements. These cartels are hard to rationalize because they induce double marginalization and higher costs. We examine Canada's alleged bread cartel...

Hub-and-spoke (HS) networks are cost-effective because they allow the realization of economies of density. However, the cost of point-to-point (PP) networks may be lower than that of HS networks when certain conditions, such as cargo demand, bunker price, vessel size, and the shippers’ value...