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Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets

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Author Info
Severin Borenstein
Andrea Shepard

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Abstract

We present and test an explanation for lags in the adjustment of wholesale gasoline prices to changes in crude oil prices. Our simple model with costly adjustment of production and inventories implies that output prices will respond with a lag to cost shocks even in the absence of menu costs, imperfect information, and long-term buyer/seller relationships. The model predicts that futures prices for gasoline will adjust incompletely to crude oil price shocks occurring close to the expiration date of the futures contract. We test and confirm this implication. The model also predicts that firms with market power will choose a different price adjustment path than would perfectly competitive firms. We examine the responses of prices in 188 local wholesale gasoline markets and find evidence that greater market power leads to slower output price adjustment.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 5468.

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Date of creation: Feb 1996
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5468

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Carlton, Dennis W, 1991. "The Theory of Allocation and Its Implications for Marketing and Industrial Structure: Why Rationing Is Efficient," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 231-62, October.
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    Other versions:
  3. Jeffrey D. Karrenbrock, 1991. "The behavior of retail gasoline prices: symmetric or not?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jul, pages 19-29. [Downloadable!]
  4. Mankiw, N Gregory, 1985. "Small Menu Costs and Large Business Cycles: A Macroeconomic Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 529-38, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Inventories and the Short-Run Dynamics of Commodity Prices," NBER Working Papers 3295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Benabou, Roland & Gertner, Robert, 1993. "Search with Learning from Prices: Does Increased Inflationary Uncertainty Lead to Higher Markups?," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 60(1), pages 69-94, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Laurence Ball & N. Gregory Mankiw, 1995. "A Sticky-Price Manifesto," NBER Working Papers 4677, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Rotemberg, Julio J, 1982. "Sticky Prices in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1187-1211, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. John Michael Ian S. Salas, 2002. "Price Adjustments and Asymmetry in the Philippine Retail Gasoline Market," Industrial Organization 0209001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ellingsen, Tore & Friberg, Richard & Hassler, John, 2006. "Menu Costs and Asymmetric Price Adjustment," CEPR Discussion Papers 5749, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Mario Denni & G. Frewer, 2006. "New evidence on the relationship beetween crude oil and petroleum product prices," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0061, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre. [Downloadable!]
  4. Michael C. Davis, 2007. "The dynamics of daily retail gasoline prices," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 713-722. [Downloadable!]
  5. Stanislav Radchenko, 2004. "Oil price volatility and the asymmetric response of gasoline prices to oil price increases and decreases," Industrial Organization 0408001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Zava Aydemir & Stefan Buehler, 2002. "Estimating Vertical Foreclosure in U.S. Gasoline Supply," Working Papers 0212, University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Leon Bettendorf & Stephanie van der Geest & Gerard Kuper, 2005. "Do Daily Retail Gasoline Prices adjust Asymmetrically?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-040/2, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Michael C. Davis & James D. Hamilton, 2003. "Why Are Prices Sticky? The Dynamics of Wholesale Gasoline Prices," NBER Working Papers 9741, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Du, Xiaodong & Hayes, Dermot J., 2008. "Impact of Ethanol Production on U.S. and Regional Gasoline Prices and On the Profitability of U.S. Oil Refinery Industry," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6353, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  10. Stanislav Radchenko, 2004. "Lags in the response of gasoline prices to changes in crude oil," Econometrics 0406001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  11. Stanislav Radchenko, 2004. "Anticipated and unanticipated effects of crude oil prices and oil inventory changes on gasoline prices," Microeconomics 0406001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  12. Muehlegger, Erich, 2006. "Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulation: A Structural Approach," Working Paper Series rwp06-015, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
  13. Martin Boileau & Marc-André Letendre, 2004. "Inventories, Sticky Prices and the Propogation of Nominal Shocks," Department of Economics Working Papers 2004-03, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
  14. Xiaodong Du & Dermot J. Hayes, 2008. "Impact of Ethanol Production on U.S. and Regional Gasoline Prices and on the Profitability of the U.S. Oil Refinery Industry, The," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 08-wp467, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Céline Nauges, 2005. "Boutique Fuels and Market Power," Emory Economics 0511, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
  16. Stanislav Radchenko, 2004. "Limited Information Bayesian Analysis of a Simultaneous Equation with an Autocorrelated Error Term and its Application to the U.S. Gasoline Market," Econometrics 0408001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  17. Arto Kovanen, 2006. "Why Do Prices in Sierra Leone Change So Often? A Case Study Using Micro-level Price Data," IMF Working Papers 06/53, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  18. Bakytzhanova Zhuldyz, 2005. "Asymmetric fuel pricing in transition economies: The case of Moscow," EERC Working Paper Series 05-18e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS. [Downloadable!]
  19. Michael Noel, 2004. "Edgeworth Price Cycles, Cost-based Pricing and Sticky Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series 2004-04, Department of Economics, UC San Diego. [Downloadable!]
  20. Muehlegger, Erich, 2006. "Market Effects of Regulatory Heterogeneity: A Study of Regional Gasoline Content Regulations," Working Paper Series rwp06-021, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
  21. Raquel Lago-González & Vicente Salas-Fumás, 2005. "Market power and bank interest rate adjustments," Banco de España Working Papers 0539, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  22. M. Galeotti & Alessandro Lanza & M. Manera, 2001. "Rockets and feathers revisited: an international comparison on European gasoline markets," Working Paper CRENoS 200112, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  23. Erich J. Muehlegger, 2004. "Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulations - A Structural Approach," Working Papers 0421, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. [Downloadable!]
  24. Richard Gilbert & Justine Hastings, 2001. "Vertical Integration in Gasoline Supply: An Empirical Test of Raising Rivals' Costs," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series 1011, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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