In a hub and spoke system of containerized seaborne trade, cargo to a region is delivered first to a primary hub port and then transported to its final destination, whether by sea, rail, road or inland waterways. Similarly, exports from the region are collected in the primary hub, and then...

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...

This paper analyzes the market entry of Red Parcel Post, a new player in the German Business-to-Business (B2B) parcel market. Currently there are four large service providers in the German B2B parcel market. Each of these incumbent providers operates - albeit with varying degrees of automation -...

There exist situations where the transportation cost is better estimated as a function of the number of vehicles required for transporting a load, rather than a linear function of the load. This provides a stepwise cost function, which defines the so-called Modular Hub Location Problem (MHLP, or...

Apple's economic role in the Publisher conspiracy to increase Amazon's below cost pricing of e-books is examined in a hub-and-spoke conspiracy framework. The Publishers conspired because of their concern that Amazon's low prices would adversely affect physical book demand and prices and also...