Publication

This paper explores the role of pooled-producer trade intermediation in shaping the range and diversity of exports. It focuses on 'private label' contracts under which the firm's product is pooled with other firms' output and re-sold under a new private label brand created by the intermediary. The authors show that the availability of the private label option results in greater total export volumes and lower average prices for consumers, but fewer independent varieties available in equilibrium. Welfare implications are mixed: consumers trade variety for volume, firms face greater competition from the new pooled-products, and intermediaries capture much of the gains.