Coordination costs in a wholesale market are the need to determine the price and other parameters of the transaction, make the existence of buyers and sellers known to one another, and bring buyers and sellers together. The mitigation of coordination costs, all else equal, should increase...

Agency and wholesale models are widely adopted vertical contractual agreements. This paper compares the private incentives and social welfare of these two business models by highlighting the differences in move order and price structure. With a monopoly platform, the agency model dominates the...

Relational contracting (RC) is an important yet little understood governance of transactions that provides more stability than the spot market and more flexibility than vertical integration. Employing transaction data on a large vegetable wholesale market in China, we study RC alongside a...

We investigate how formularies used by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can affect manufacturer rebates for branded drugs. We first present a theoretical model of multidimensional contracting in which a PBM negotiates with drug manufacturers over menus of formulary-contingent rebate payments and...

This paper contributes to the relatively new literature on the role of intermediaries in international trade. Using Italian firm-level data, we document significant differences between exporters of different types and highlight the role of country-specific fixed cost in the choice of direct...