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Price asymmetries in the European gasoline market

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Bagnai

    (Department of Economics, Gabriele d'Annunzio University)

  • Christian Alexander Mongeau Ospina

    (Italian Association for the Study of Economic Asymmetries)

Abstract

Building on the well-established “rockets and feathers” literature, and on the recently developed nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) modelling, we investigate the asymmetries in gasoline pricing on a comprehensive sample of monthly data from twelve Eurozone countries running from 1994:1 to 2014:12. The empirical results feature two robust patterns. Firstly, while the effects of exchange rate variations display a positive asymmetry (i.e., devaluations have a greater impact with respect to revaluations), crude price variations induce negative asymmetry (i.e., reductions in the price of crude oil have a greater impact than price rises). Secondly, the positive asymmetry to exchange rate changes is much stronger in core Eurozone countries. The negative asymmetry with respect to crude oil prices confirms the results of recent empirical research and theoretical models.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Bagnai & Christian Alexander Mongeau Ospina, 2016. "Price asymmetries in the European gasoline market," a/ Working Papers Series 1602, Italian Association for the Study of Economic Asymmetries, Rome (Italy).
    • Handle: RePEc:ais:wpaper:1602
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    asymmetric cointegration; asymmetric price adjustment; pass-through; gasoline price; European gasoline market; signaling.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • L71 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

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