Research about the circular economy is dominated by engineers, architects, and social scientists in fields other than economics. The concepts they study can be useful in economic models of policies – to reduce virgin materials extraction, to encourage green design, and to make better use of...

In the European Union, medicines are regulated products subject to both single market (e.g., regional exhaustion of property rights) and country specific health care regulations (e.g., medicines pricing). This gives rise to parallel trade (PT), a phenomenon that takes place when a patented...

The paper develops a simple theoretical model of inventory control in global supply chains. It identifies a role for intermediaries in managing inventory, and shows that inserting an intermediary as an additional link in a supply chain is profitable when demand volatility is high. It also...

Since the 1970s, exports and imports of manufactured goods have been the engine of international trade and much of that trade relies on container shipping. This paper introduces a new monthly index of the volume of container trade to and from North America. Incorporating this index into a...

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of competitive or exclusive retailers and assigning it to a manufacturer increases the value of a supply chain especially for goods whose demand is highly volatile. This is because doing so solves incentive distortions that arise...

Reliable supply chains are crucial to the productivity and economic growth of nations. Despite the recognition of its importance, formal research on the contribution of supply chain logistics, including the relative impacts across different logistics dimensions, is less. The importance of supply...

This paper compares drivers of full COVID-19 vaccinations and booster doses across U.S. counties. Booster doses are contingent upon someone receiving the primary doses, and the risk attitudes and propensities to get vaccinated may be different across individuals, along with the supply chain...

We study determinants of COVID-19 vaccine donations from recipients' perspective, especially considering supply chain and institutional weakness (corruption) aspects. Results, based on data from more than 131 nations, show that strengthened supply chains reduced donations. The impacts of...

This paper analyzes private and social incentives to levy an ad valorem licensing fee in a supply chain governed by the legal principle of patent exhaustion. With perfect competition at the upstream and downstream stage, the choice of the licensing segment is irrelevant for the patent holder and...

Recent contributions on offshoring often assume that firms can freely split their production process into separate steps which can be ranked according to the cost savings from producing abroad. We replace this assumption by the notion of a technologically determined sequence of production steps....