A theory of buyer-seller networks

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kranton, RE; Minehart, DF
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; Boston University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.91.3.485
• 发表日期: 2001
• 页码: 485-508
• 关键词: model; auction

摘要

This paper introduces a new model of exchange: networks, rather than markets, of buyers and sellers. It begins with the empirically motivated premise that a buyer and seller must have a relationship, a link, to exchange goods. Networks-buyers, sellers, and the pattern of links connecting them-are common exchange environments. This paper develops a methodology to study network structures and explains why agents may form networks. In a model that captures characteristics of a variety of industries, the paper shows that buyers and sellers, acting strategically in their own self-interests, can form the network structures that maximize overall welfare.