This article examines the price effects of gasoline stations following a retail merger in 2022. Using detailed station-level price data from 2020 to 2024, the analysis shows that fuel prices increase at both merging stations and their competitors, but with regional differences. These regional...

Die Infrastruktur der deutschen Autobahnen ist von zentraler Bedeutung für den Wirtschafts-verkehr, den Tourismus und die Mobilität der Bürgerinnen und Bürger. Ein zentraler Bestandteil dieser Infrastruktur sind Haltepunkte entlang der Fernstraßen. Autobahnraststätten und Autohöfe dienen...

We develop a tractable model of competitive price cycles where prices are chosen alternatingly and consumers have heterogenous information. The model yields sharp empirical predictions about price patterns, impact of captive consumers and pass-through. Using rich station-level price data from...

Given the changing landscape of fuel retailing, this study explores the impact of spatial competition and market concentration on diesel prices in Germany. The question of how population density and gas station density, i.e. the equilibrium pattern of locations of firms, are related is examined....

Increasing competition and reducing market power are core interests of economists, regulators and the public to maximise aggregate social welfare. Low prices are achieved through intense competition in the retail gasoline market. The absence of fierce competition is referred to as market power....

Understanding how consumers respond to price increases is key when designing price-related policies. Using microdata on vehicle usage and paid fuel prices, I analyze consumers' response, focusing on three channels of mitigation: distance driven, fuel efficiency, and search. On average, consumers...

Using a natural experiment from a retail gasoline antitrust case, we study how asymmetric information sharing affects oligopoly pricing. Empirically, price competition softens when, following case settlement, information sharing shifts from symmetric to asymmetric, with one firm losing access to...

Am 22. Juni beginnen in Nordrhein-Westfalen die Sommerferien. Wie jedes Jahr werden dann Viele mit dem Pkw in den Urlaub fahren und aus diesem Grund werden die Preise für Benzin und Diesel regelmäßig ein heißes Sommerthema. Die gute Nachricht ist, dass Diesel deutschlandweit Mitte Juni 2023...

According to many studies, the transmission of oil prices to retail fuel prices is asymmetric. Fuel prices react faster if oil prices rise and more slowly if oil prices fall. We use the simple and dynamic asymmetry models, error correction models, threshold autoregressive cointegration, and an...

This paper characterizes fueling stations' pricing strategies to study price differentials within retail gasoline markets. We use a unique dataset with stations' locations and daily gasoline prices in the major cities of the continental U.S. to classify cycler and non-cycler stations. We exploit...

We estimate the effect of competition on incumbent firm pricing by using high frequency price data and the precise geographic location for all gas stations in California. Using an event study design, we find that the entry of a new station is associated with a 2.5 cent decrease in prices at...

The ownership of competing firms by investment funds, or common ownership, can cause anti-competitive product market outcomes. This paper examines the price effects of common ownership in the Western Australian (WA) retail gasoline market. Using a rich data set of daily, station-level petrol...

This paper summarizes the main findings of the results in the literature on the role of ethanol in reducing retail gasoline prices in the United States. We provide a comprehensive overview of the key results and methodologies used to obtain them. The paper documents the growing research interest...

Many empirical studies state that retail gasoline and diesel prices react more quickly when the crude oil price rises rather than decreases. In the paper, we confirm these asymmetric reactions of retail fuel prices in selected cities in the United States of America. We use the adjustment cost...

This paper estimates an imperfect information discrete choice model of drivers' refueling preferences and analyzes the implications of these preferences for electric vehicle (EV) adoption. Drivers respond four times more to stations' long-run average prices than to current prices and value...

Competition in the German gasoline retail market is characterized by strong intraday price cycles. The cycles are described in the literature as corresponding to the well-known Edgeworth cycles. Cyclical pricing patterns are observable all over Germany and throughout the world. So far, research...

We examine how daily retail prices of gasoline stations in Seoul Korea responded to changes in costs from 2009 to 2019. During the sample period we find a substantial shift in the composition of Seoul gas stations and in the pattern of pass-through of wholesale price increase and decrease. In...

This paper characterizes fueling stations' pricing strategies to study price differentials within retail gasoline markets. We use a unique dataset with stations' locations and daily gasoline prices in the major cities of the continental U.S. to classify cycler and non-cycler stations. We exploit...

This paper studies the costs and benefits of price leadership in a retail gasoline market with asymmetric price cycles. A unique dataset with high frequency price and volume data for almost all Norwegian gas stations coupled with a particular pricing pattern allow me to provide the first...

Fuel standards and gasoline content regulations are widely adopted by policymakers to reduce urban pollution and emission. An important but understudied question for policy design is measuring consumers’ private willingness to pay for higher gasoline standards. The empirical challenge is...

Past research shows that loyalty programs can generate switching costs for consumers and increase their purchase frequency. Theoretical work suggests that if switching costs are significant, firms should charge lower prices in the early periods of a program to boost market share, and increase...

This paper tests for price patterns in retail gasoline markets consistent with those predicted by models of implicit collusion among firms. Recent supergame models show that the highest supportable collusive price is a function of today's profit relative to expected future profit: collusive...

Prosecution of the retail gasoline price-fixing cartel in Québec was the largest and most successful criminal investigation in the history of the Competition Bureau of Canada. In June 2008 the first charges were brought against 38 individuals and 14 companies under Section 45 of the pre-2010...

The German petrol station market is characterized by strong intraday price cycles, which probably correspond to the well-known Edgeworth cycles. The prices go up strongly in the late evening or in the middle of the night, fall relatively heavily in the early morning and then go up and down...

This paper uses a new data source to analyze the choice of organizational form of retail gasoline stations. In recent years, gasoline stations have tended to be less likely to be owned and operated by a lessee dealer and more likely to be owned and operated by the refiner. Critics have alleged...

This paper studies the transition from monopoly by a public firm to mixed duopoly, in which public firm and private firm have heterogeneous objective functions. With different constant marginal costs, my theoretical model shows that the market prices and outputs do not change after entry by the...

This paper characterizes fueling stations' pricing strategies to study price variation within retail gasoline markets. We use a unique dataset with stations' locations and daily gasoline prices in the major cities of the continental U.S. to classify cycler and non-cycler stations. We exploit...

This article estimates a model of optimal search where consumers learn the distribution of gasoline prices during their driving trips. Our estimation incorporates traffic information and leverages the ordered search environment to recover parameters of the search and learning process using only...

Fuel prices are commonly perceived to be excessively high, which regularly triggers political discussions about fuel price regulations. Consumers demand stricter fuel price regulations to provide transparency about the current price level and to protect them from sudden price fluctuations. Such...