The Inner Workings of a Hub-and-Spoke Cartel in the Automotive Fuel Industry
基于巴西汽车燃料行业的法院文件和价格销售数据，研究了加油站（辐条）如何借助燃料分销商（中心）提高零售价并减少价格分散，发现分销商通过提高批发价并阻止竞争对手供货来获利，同时揭示了中心帮助辐条平滑成本波动的新机制。
We study the inner workings of a hub-and-spoke cartel in the Brazilian automotive fuel industry. Based on court documents and detailed price and sales data, we discuss how gas station owners (spokes) operating inside the federal capital received help from fuel distributors (hub) to reduce dispersion of and increase gasoline’s retail price. We provide evidence that distributor cartel members benefited by raising wholesale prices while keeping competitors from supplying retail cartel members. We also provide theoretical foundations and empirical evidence for a new mechanism through which hubs help spokes: smoothing cost fluctuations.