Trade Enabling Investments in Networked Markets

Trade Enabling Investments in Networked Markets
Author: Matthew Lloyd Elliott
Publisher: Stanford University
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

In many markets not all buyers can trade with all sellers. These markets can be represented as a network where the buyers and sellers are the nodes and weighted edges represent potential gains from trade between buyer-seller pairs. In these networked markets the structure of the network will affect who trades with whom and the terms of these trades. In particular, agents' alternative trading opportunities might provide outside options for them. In Chapter 2 I identify a parsimonious mapping from the network structure into market outcomes that captures these intuitions and is stable insofar as no buyer-seller pair could do better by instead trading with each other. In many instances networked markets are formed endogenously through investments that enable trade. In the remainder of Chapter 2 I explore such investments when they are directed. For example, two countries might build a pipeline to enable them to trade natural gas. In Chapter 3 I consider undirected investments in search, where the set of the possible trading opportunities that are discovered, and can subsequently be utilized, depends on the search efforts of the agents. For example, workers and firms might exert effort searching for each other in the labor market. This dissertation explores the nature and size of inefficiencies in these trade enabling investments.

Peace and Prosperity through World Trade

Peace and Prosperity through World Trade
Author: Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2010-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139493701

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) was created in 1919 by business leaders who described themselves as 'merchants of peace' and whose motto was 'world peace through world trade'. Since then a number of initiatives, including the founding of the WTO in 1995, have provided the proper regulatory conditions for a dramatic increase in world trade. This has generated unprecedented growth and allowed many countries to enjoy great gains in wealth and welfare. Yet despite these gains we are still far from achieving the ICC's goal of world peace through world trade. This 2010 book provides a broad overview of the forces that shape international trade and global interdependence, showing business leaders and entrepreneurs how we can address the shortcomings of the multilateral trading system. Most importantly, it shows how we can turn international trade into one of the key global instruments to achieve peace and prosperity in the twenty-first century.