Research Summary
Research Summary
Book on the Rubber Industry:
Description
The preliminary title is "Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Institutions & Market Power, 1870-1910".
The book is intended to cover all stages in the rubber chain, from tappers to manufacturers. It thus spams all crude rubber producing regions, a few traders, and some British and American rubber manufacturing companies. I use a novel approach to commodity chains that emphasizes the role of institutions, geography and market power. The analysis is two-dimensional: it covers interactions between players located at the same node in the rubber chain as well as interactions between agents located at different nodes.