IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/udc/wpaper/wp484.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do LPG Prices React to the Entry of Natural Gas? Implications for Competition Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Aldo González
  • Vicente Lagos

Abstract

In developing countries, the penetration of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is still high, and hence the entry of Natural Gas (NG) networks coexists with the use of LPG by an important fraction of households. Thus, a relevant policy question is whether the number and degree of horizontal integration among NG and LPG providers has an influence on the level of retail prices. Using selfreported LPG retail prices of the largest LPG provider in Chile for the period 2013-2014, we estimate that the presence of a competing NG network generates an average decrease of LPG retail prices within the range [-2,-4%] depending on the econometric specification. Thus, since the presence of an additional competing provider (i.e., an NG retailer) has an influence on the level of prices, LPG and NG may be indeed considered as imperfect substitutes. The main policy implication of this result is that the degree of horizontal integration between both types of providers should matter and there would be room for regulatory intervention aimed at proposing remedies in order to mitigate any potential anticompetitive effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Aldo González & Vicente Lagos, 2019. "Do LPG Prices React to the Entry of Natural Gas? Implications for Competition Policy," Working Papers wp484, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp484
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uchile.cl/uploads/publicacion/7b596a6583617941e89c506c378f8da6e3e316fd.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aviv Nevo, 2000. "Mergers with Differentiated Products: The Case of the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 395-421, Autumn.
    2. Mattia Nardotto & Tommaso Valletti & Frank Verboven, 2015. "Unbundling The Incumbent: Evidence From Uk Broadband," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 330-362, April.
    3. Hulshof, Daan & van der Maat, Jan-Pieter & Mulder, Machiel, 2016. "Market fundamentals, competition and natural-gas prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 480-491.
    4. Stephen P. A. Brown & Mine K. Yucel, 2008. "What Drives Natural Gas Prices?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 45-60.
    5. Mark D. Manuszak & Charles C. Moul, 2008. "Prices And Endogenous Market Structure In Office Supply Superstores," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 94-112, March.
    6. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2014. "Measuring unilateral effects in partial horizontal acquisitions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 22-36.
    7. Christopher F Baum, 2006. "An Introduction to Modern Econometrics using Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number imeus, March.
    8. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    9. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    10. Bresnahan, Timothy F & Reiss, Peter C, 1991. "Entry and Competition in Concentrated Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 977-1009, October.
    11. Mu, Xiaoyi, 2007. "Weather, storage, and natural gas price dynamics: Fundamentals and volatility," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 46-63, January.
    12. Berry, Steven T. & Waldfogel, Joel, 1999. "Public radio in the United States: does it correct market failure or cannibalize commercial stations?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 189-211, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bourreau, Marc & Grzybowski, Lukasz & Hasbi, Maude, 2019. "Unbundling the incumbent and deployment of high-speed internet: Evidence from France," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Gabor Molnar & Scott J. Savage, 2017. "Market Structure and Broadband Internet Quality," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 73-104, March.
    3. Paul Ellickson & Sanjog Misra, 2012. "Enriching interactions: Incorporating outcome data into static discrete games," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, March.
    4. Mitsukuni Nishida, 2015. "Estimating a Model of Strategic Network Choice: The Convenience-Store Industry in Okinawa," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 20-38, January.
    5. Gregory S. Crawford & Nicola Pavanini & Fabiano Schivardi, 2018. "Asymmetric Information and Imperfect Competition in Lending Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1659-1701, July.
    6. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2018. "Quantifying the coordinated effects of partial horizontal acquisitions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 108-149.
    7. Byrne, David P. & Imai, Susumu & Jain, Neelam & Sarafidis, Vasilis, 2022. "Instrument-free identification and estimation of differentiated products models using cost data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 278-301.
    8. Gregory L. Rosston & Scott J. Savage & Bradley S. Wimmer, 2018. "Price competition in the market for business telecommunications services," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 81-104, August.
    9. Vishal Singh & Ting Zhu, 2008. "Pricing and Market Concentration in Oligopoly Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 1020-1035, 11-12.
    10. Victor Aguirregabiria & Margaret Slade, 2017. "Empirical models of firms and industries," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1445-1488, December.
    11. Kerkemezos, Yannis & Pennings, Enrico & Karreman, Bas & van Reeven, Peran, 2023. "Price asymmetries and the path dependence of market power: Evidence from the U.S. airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Mattia Nardotto & Tommaso Valletti & Frank Verboven, 2015. "Unbundling The Incumbent: Evidence From Uk Broadband," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 330-362, April.
    13. Vélez-Velásquez, Juan Sebastián, 2019. "Merger effects with product complementarity: Evidence from Colombia’s telecommunications," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    14. Michaela Draganska & Michael Mazzeo & Katja Seim, 2009. "Beyond plain vanilla: Modeling joint product assortment and pricing decisions," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 105-146, June.
    15. Claudio Lucarelli & Jeffrey Prince & Kosali Simon, 2012. "The Welfare Impact Of Reducing Choice In Medicare Part D: A Comparison Of Two Regulation Strategies," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(4), pages 1155-1177, November.
    16. Haizhen Lin & Yijia Wang, 2012. "Competition and Price Discrimination in the Parking Garage Industry," Working Papers 2012-07, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    17. Beckert, Walter & Mazzarotto, Nicola, 2010. "Price-concentration analysis in merger cases with differentiated products," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-23.
    18. Landgraf, Steven W., 2020. "Entry threats from municipal broadband Internet and impacts on private provider quality," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. Przemysław Jeziorski, 2014. "Estimation of cost efficiencies from mergers: application to US radio," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 816-846, December.
    20. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp484. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mohit Karnani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuclcl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.