The Role of Content Regulation on Pricing and Market Power in Regional Retail and Wholesale Gasoline Markets

The Role of Content Regulation on Pricing and Market Power in Regional Retail and Wholesale Gasoline Markets PDF Author: Erich J. Muehlegger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
Since 1999, regional retail and wholesale gasoline markets in the United States have experienced significant price volatility, both intertemporally and across geographic markets. This paper focuses on one potential explanation for regional variations in price levels and volatility, gasoline content regulation. Implemented regionally to address local mobile-source emissions, gasoline content regulations increase cost to refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline, in addition to reducing the fungibility of gasoline across different regions. This paper first provides a summary of the regional gasoline content regulations and a primer on the refining industry. In addition, this paper specifies the costs regional content regulation imposes on refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline and the role increasing heterogeneity of gasoline may play in regional price volatility. Finally, this paper surveys the previous literature looking at the effect of gasoline content regulation on prices and price volatility and suggests directions for future research.

The Role of Content Regulation on Pricing and Market Power in Regional Retail and Wholesale Gasoline Markets

The Role of Content Regulation on Pricing and Market Power in Regional Retail and Wholesale Gasoline Markets PDF Author: Erich J. Muehlegger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since 1999, regional retail and wholesale gasoline markets in the United States have experienced significant price volatility, both intertemporally and across geographic markets. This paper focuses on one potential explanation for regional variations in price levels and volatility, gasoline content regulation. Implemented regionally to address local mobile-source emissions, gasoline content regulations increase cost to refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline, in addition to reducing the fungibility of gasoline across different regions. This paper first provides a summary of the regional gasoline content regulations and a primer on the refining industry. In addition, this paper specifies the costs regional content regulation imposes on refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline and the role increasing heterogeneity of gasoline may play in regional price volatility. Finally, this paper surveys the previous literature looking at the effect of gasoline content regulation on prices and price volatility and suggests directions for future research.

Pricing Carbon

Pricing Carbon PDF Author: A. Denny Ellerman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139486047
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the world's largest market for carbon and the most significant multinational initiative ever taken to mobilize markets to protect the environment. It will be an important influence on the development and implementation of trading schemes in the US, Japan, and elsewhere. However, as is true of any pioneering public policy experiment, this scheme has generated much controversy. Pricing Carbon provides the first detailed description and analysis of the EU ETS, focusing on the first 'trial' period of the scheme (2005–7). Written by an international team of experts, it allows readers to get behind the headlines and come to a better understanding of what was done and what happened based on a dispassionate, empirically based review of the evidence. This book should be read by anyone who wants to know what happens when emissions are capped, traded, and priced.

Essays on Gasoline Price Spikes, Environmental Regulation of Gasoline Content, and Incentives for Refinery Operation

Essays on Gasoline Price Spikes, Environmental Regulation of Gasoline Content, and Incentives for Refinery Operation PDF Author: Erich Johann Muehlegger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gasoline
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Since 1999, regional retail and wholesale gasoline markets in the United States have experienced significant price volatility, both intertemporally and across geographic markets. In particular, gasoline prices in California, Illinois and Wisconsin have spiked occasionally well above gasoline prices in nearby states. The three chapters of my thesis study the relationship between gasoline price spikes, environmental regulation of gasoline content, unanticipated refinery outages and other recent structural changes in the domestic oil market. In the first chapter, I detail current regulations related to gasoline content. Implemented regionally to address local mobile-source emissions, gasoline content regulations increase costs to refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline, as well as reduce the fungibility of gasoline across different regions. Chapter one provides a summary of the regulations and a qualitative description the costs the regulations impose on refiners, transporters and distributors of gasoline. In chapter two, I estimate two distinct effects of gasoline content regulations in California, Illinois and Wisconsin: (i) the effect of increased production costs due to supplementary regulation, and (ii) the effect of incompatibility between these blends and gasoline meeting federal reformulated gasoline standards. Using a structural model based on the production optimization problem of refiners, I simulate wholesale prices for jet fuel, diesel and four blends of gasoline in each geographic market. I then specify a counterfactual in which gasoline in the three states met federal requirements.

Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulation

Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulation PDF Author: Erich Muehlegger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gasoline
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
This paper studies the degree to which gasoline price spikes in California, Illinois and Wisconsin over 1995 to 2001 can be explained by regulatory differentiation - gasoline sold in California, Illinois and Wisconsin is chemically different than gasoline sold in other locations as a result of local regulation supplementary to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. I specify a structural model based on the production optimization problem of refiners and estimate wholesale prices for jet fuel, diesel and four blends of gasoline in each geographic market. I then simulate a counterfactual in which gasoline in the three states meets federal requirements. Comparing the results from the counterfactual to the initial model, allows me to distinguish the degree to which prices spikes in these markets are the result of regulatory differentiation, rather than geographic heterogeneity. I estimate that 72, 92 and 91 percent of price spikes created by refinery fires in California, Illinois and Wisconsin could be mitigated by compatibility with federal RFG standards. Moreover, I also quantify the effect of two other factors thought to increase gasoline prices, (i) changes in refinery ownership and (ii) limited expansion of domestic refining capacity.

Renewable Fuel Standard

Renewable Fuel Standard PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309187516
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many questions have been raised regarding the sustainability of our current pattern of high consumption of nonrenewable energy and its environmental consequences. Further, because the United States imports about 55 percent of the nation's consumption of crude oil, there are additional concerns about the security of supply. Hence, efforts are being made to find alternatives to our current pathway, including greater energy efficiency and use of energy sources that could lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nuclear and renewable sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The United States has a long history with biofuels and the nation is on a course charted to achieve a substantial increase in biofuels. Renewable Fuel Standard evaluates the economic and environmental consequences of increasing biofuels production as a result of Renewable Fuels Standard, as amended by EISA (RFS2). The report describes biofuels produced in 2010 and those projected to be produced and consumed by 2022, reviews model projections and other estimates of the relative impact on the prices of land, and discusses the potential environmental harm and benefits of biofuels production and the barriers to achieving the RFS2 consumption mandate. Policy makers, investors, leaders in the transportation sector, and others with concerns for the environment, economy, and energy security can rely on the recommendations provided in this report.

The State of Competition in Gasoline Marketing

The State of Competition in Gasoline Marketing PDF Author: James B. Delaney
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Competition, Unfair
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description


Petroleum Marketing

Petroleum Marketing PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Small Business. Subcommittee on Regulation, Business Opportunities, and Energy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 740

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Book Description


A Guide for Retail Gasoline Pricing

A Guide for Retail Gasoline Pricing PDF Author: United States. Federal Energy Administration
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gasoline
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description


Price-Response Asymmetry and Spatial Differentiation in Local Retail Gasoline Markets

Price-Response Asymmetry and Spatial Differentiation in Local Retail Gasoline Markets PDF Author: Jeremy A. Verlinda
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781289031015
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
This study explores the possibility that local market power influences the observed asymmetric relationship between changes in wholesale gasoline costs and changes in retail gasoline prices. I exploit an original data set of weekly gas station prices in Southern California from September 2002 to May 2003, and take advantage of detailed station and local market level characteristics to determine the extent to which spatial differentiation influences price response asymmetry. I find that brand identity, proximity to rival stations, bundling and advertising, operation type, and local market features and demographics each influence a station's predicted price-response asymmetry.

Anticompetitive Practices in the Retail Gasoline Market

Anticompetitive Practices in the Retail Gasoline Market PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description