Industry Structure and the Strategic Provision of Trade Credit by Upstream Firms

Abstract

Trade credit can serve as a collusion mechanism for competing supply chains to increase producer surplus in medium concentrated industries. We analyze theoretically how this form of financing influences retailers’ behavior in the product market, study incentives to deviate, and show evidence consistent with the model’s predictions. Trade credit use is inversely U shaped in industry concentration, and this pattern is more pronounced in industries more prone to collusion and when incentives to deviate are smaller.