Networks and Markets: The dynamic impacts of information, matching and transaction costs on global trade

The purpose of this paper is to explore strategic incentives to use trade networks rather than markets and to shed light on the dynamic relations between two distinct trading systems: a formal system of markets and a decentralised system of networks. We investigate the issues by mainly focusing on the role of matching in a trade network. The existing literature emphasises the importance of information transmission in achieving efficiency in repeated personal transactions under perfect observability. By contrast, we show that a folk theorem may hold if we change the way traders are matched, without introducing any information sharing. We also examine different stages of an evolution of trading system. The study states conditions under which agents prefer to trade on networks rather than in markets.