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The Modern Wholesaler: Global Sourcing, Domestic Distribution, and Scale Economies

Sharat Ganapati

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics2025https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20210015article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.49

Abstract

Half of all transactions in the $6 trillion market for manufactured goods in the United States were intermediated by wholesalers in 2012, up from 32 percent in 1992. Seventy percent of this increase is due to the growth of “superstar” firms—the largest 1 percent. Estimates based on detailed administrative data show that the rise of the largest firms was driven by an intuitive linkage between their sourcing of goods from abroad and an expansion of their domestic distribution network to reach more buyers. Both elements require scale economies and lead to increased wholesaler market shares and markups. (JEL D22, D24, F14, L15, L60, L81)

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20210015

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@article{sharat2025,
  title        = {{The Modern Wholesaler: Global Sourcing, Domestic Distribution, and Scale Economies}},
  author       = {Sharat Ganapati},
  journal      = {American Economic Journal: Microeconomics},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20210015},
}

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The Modern Wholesaler: Global Sourcing, Domestic Distribution, and Scale Economies

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Evidence weight

0.49

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.44 × 0.4 = 0.18
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.