IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea08/6353.html

Impact of Ethanol Production on U.S. and Regional Gasoline Prices and On the Profitability of U.S. Oil Refinery Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Du, Xiaodong
  • Hayes, Dermot J.

Abstract

Using pooled regional time-series data and panel data estimation, we quantify the impact of monthly ethanol production on monthly retail regular gasoline prices. This analysis suggests that the growth in ethanol production has caused retail gasoline prices to be $0.29 to $0.40 per gallon lower than would otherwise have been the case. The analysis shows that the negative impact of ethanol on gasoline prices varies considerably across regions. The Midwest region has the biggest impact, at $0.39/gallon, while the Rocky Mountain region had the smallest impact, at $0.17/gallon. The results also indicate that ethanol production has significantly reduced the profit margin of the oil refinery industry. The results are robust with respect to alternative model specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea08:6353
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.6353
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/6353/files/465925.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.6353?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Berhanu Girma & Albert S. Paulson, 1998. "Seasonality in petroleum futures spreads," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 581-598, August.
    2. Simla Tokgoz & Amani Elobeid & Jacinto F. Fabiosa & Dermot J. Hayes & Bruce A. Babcock & Tun-Hsiang (Edward) Yu & Fengxia Dong & Chad E. Hart & John C. Beghin, 2007. "Emerging Biofuels: Outlook of Effects on U.S. Grain, Oilseed, and Livestock Markets," Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) Publications (archive only) 07-sr101, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    3. Tokgoz, Simla & Elobeid, Amani E., 2007. "Understanding the Underlying Fundamentals of Ethanol Markets: Linkages between Energy and Agriculture," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon 9795, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Severin Borenstein & Andrea Shepard, 2002. "Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(1), pages 116-139, Spring.
    5. Oladunjoye, Olusegun, 2008. "Market structure and price adjustment in the U.S. wholesale gasoline markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 937-961, May.
    6. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2021. "General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 13-50, January.
    7. Asche, Frank & Gjolberg, Ole & Volker, Teresa, 2003. "Price relationships in the petroleum market: an analysis of crude oil and refined product prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 289-301, May.
    8. Paul Berhanu Girma & Albert S. Paulson, 1999. "Risk arbitrage opportunities in petroleum futures spreads," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 931-955, December.
    9. Vedenov, Dmitry V. & Duffield, James A. & Wetzstein, Michael E., 2006. "Entry of Alternative Fuels in a Volatile U.S. Gasoline Market," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(01), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Frees, Edward W., 1995. "Assessing cross-sectional correlation in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 393-414, October.
    11. Szklo, Alexandre & Schaeffer, Roberto & Delgado, Fernanda, 2007. "Can one say ethanol is a real threat to gasoline?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5411-5421, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Douglas G. Tiffany, 2009. "Economic and environmental impacts of U.S. corn ethanol production and use," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Apr, pages 42-58.
    2. Hayes, Dermot & Babcock, Bruce & Fabiosa, Jacinto & Tokgoz, Simla & Elobeid, Amani & Yu, Tun-Hsiang & Dong, Fengxia & Hart, Chad & Chavez, Eddie & Pan, Suwen & Carriquiry, Miguel & Dumortier, Jerome, 2009. "Biofuels: Potential Production Capacity, Effects on Grain and Livestock Sectors, and Implications for Food Prices and Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 465-491, August.
    3. Nikos Alexandratos, 2008. "Food Price Surges: Possible Causes, Past Experience, and Longer Term Relevance," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 663-697, December.
    4. Schmitz, Troy G. & Schmitz, Andrew, . "The Complexities of the Interface between Agricultural Policy and Trade," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 13(01), pages 1-12.
    5. Jerome Dumortier & Dermot J. Hayes & Miguel Carriquiry & Fengxia Dong & Xiaodong Du & Amani Elobeid & Jacinto F. Fabiosa & Simla Tokgoz, 2011. "Sensitivity of Carbon Emission Estimates from Indirect Land-Use Change," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 428-448.

    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. repec:isu:genstf:200801010800001979 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Storhas, Dominik P. & De Mello, Lurion & Singh, Abhay Kumar, 2020. "Multiscale lead-lag relationships in oil and refined product return dynamics: A symbolic wavelet transfer entropy approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    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.
    4. Ederington, Louis H. & Fernando, Chitru S. & Hoelscher, Seth A. & Lee, Thomas K. & Linn, Scott C., 2019. "A review of the evidence on the relation between crude oil prices and petroleum product prices," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Honarvar, Afshin, 2009. "Asymmetry in retail gasoline and crude oil price movements in the United States: An application of hidden cointegration technique," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 395-402, May.
    6. Fousekis, Panos & Grigoriadis, Vasilis, 2017. "Price co-movement and the crack spread in the US futures markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 57-71.
    7. Du, Xiaodong & Hayes, Dermot J., 2009. "The impact of ethanol production on US and regional gasoline markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3227-3234, August.
    8. Naima Chrid & Sami Saafi & Mohamed Chakroun, 2021. "Export Upgrading and Economic Growth: a Panel Cointegration and Causality Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(2), pages 811-841, June.
    9. Qiu, Jin & Ma, Qing & Wu, Lang, 2019. "A moving blocks empirical likelihood method for panel linear fixed effects models with serial correlations and cross-sectional dependences," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 394-405.
    10. Marcell T. Kurbucz & Betsab'e P'erez Garrido & Antal Jakov'ac, 2025. "Eigenvalue-Based Randomness Test for Residual Diagnostics in Panel Data Models," Papers 2504.05297, arXiv.org.
    11. Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Boachie, Micheal Kofi, 2020. "The environmental impact of industrialization and foreign direct investment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Hamit-Haggar, Mahamat, 2012. "Greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: A panel cointegration analysis from Canadian industrial sector perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 358-364.
    13. Alberto Montagnoli & Jun Nagaysu, 2013. "An investigation of housing affordability in the UK regions," Working Papers 1316, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    14. Hengyun Ma & Les Oxley & John Gibson, 2008. "Testing for Energy Market Integration in China," Working Papers in Economics 08/12, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    15. Justin Marion & Erich Muehlegger, 2008. "Measuring Illegal Activity and the Effects of Regulatory Innovation: Tax Evasion and the Dyeing of Untaxed Diesel," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(4), pages 633-666, August.
    16. Adolfo Maza & Paula Gutiérrez-Portilla, 2022. "Outward FDI and exports relation: A heterogeneous panel approach dealing with cross-sectional dependence," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 170, pages 174-189.
    17. Hikmet Akyol & Selim Basar, 2024. "Empirical Analysis of Turkish Banking Sector Institutional and Macroeconomic Determinants of Risks," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 73(74-1), pages 59-98, June.
    18. Muhammad Sadiq & Syed Tauseef Hassan & Irfan Khan & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, 2024. "Policy uncertainty, renewable energy, corruption and CO2 emissions nexus in BRICS-1 countries: a panel CS-ARDL approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 21595-21621, August.
    19. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah, 2022. "ICT Diffusion, Industrialisation and Economic Growth Nexus: an International Cross-country Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2030-2069, September.
    20. Gianko Michailidis & Concepció Patxot & Meritxell Solé, 2019. "Do pensions foster education? An empirical perspective," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(38), pages 4127-4150, August.
    21. Kendix, Michael & Walls, W.D., 2010. "Oil industry consolidation and refined product prices: Evidence from US wholesale gasoline terminals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3498-3507, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ags:aaea08:6353. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.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.