Perelló Perez, Oscar Ignacio;
(2025)
Trade Intermediation and Market Structure in Global Production Networks.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis studies how firms use intermediation services to respond to frictions and how imperfect competition shapes firm performance in global production networks. Chapter 1 explores the role of intermediaries in mitigating disruptions in input markets. Combining customs and tax records from Chile, I show that intermediation increases with supply chain risk, as intermediaries offer a more resilient sourcing technology. I develop a model of global sourcing with matching costs and insecure supply relationships, where more productive firms diversify suppliers and less productive firms contract with intermediaries. Despite double marginalization, intermediaries relax the efficiency–risk trade-off for producers that lack the scale to diversify directly. Chapter 2 examines the role of intermediaries from the seller's perspective. Exporters of all sizes use intermediaries, mix trade modes across buyers, and charge lower prices to intermediaries. We explain these facts in a model with sellers of heterogeneous productivity and matchability, buyers of heterogeneous productivity, and intermediaries that reduce matching costs. A key result is that sellers' attributes are negatively correlated, so intermediation enables high-productivity sellers with low matchability to reach smaller buyers. Chapter 3 studies how production networks shape the impact of trade policy under imperfect competition. We propose a model of network formation with two-sided firm heterogeneity, matching frictions, and imperfectly competitive input markets, where more productive buyers match with more suppliers, inducing tougher competition and lowering input costs. Package reforms that reduce matching costs or promote competition amplify the welfare gains from shallow trade agreements. In summary, this thesis shows that intermediation services complement in-house firm operations and that the market structure mediates the impact of policy shocks in global markets.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Trade Intermediation and Market Structure in Global Production Networks |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Economics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208687 |
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