Price Effects of the Austrian Fuel Price Fixing Act: A Synthetic Control Study

被引：7

作者：

Becker, Maike ^{[1
]}

Pfeifer, Gregor ^{[2
,3
,4
]}

Schweikert, Karsten ^{[5
,6
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Hohenheim Osthof Nord, Chair Innovat Management, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany

[2] Univ Sydney, Sch Econ, Social Sci Bldg, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

[3] CESifo, Munich, Germany

[4] IZA, Bonn, Germany

[5] Univ Hohenheim, Core Facil Hohenheim, Schloss Hohenheim 1 C, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany

[6] Univ Hohenheim, Inst Econ, Schloss Hohenheim 1 C, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany

来源：

ENERGY ECONOMICS | 2021年 / 97卷

关键词：

Causal effects; Diesel; Gasoline; Price regulation; Retail fuel prices; ECONOMIC COSTS; GASOLINE; SEARCH; COMPETITION; ADJUSTMENT; DEMAND; CITIES; MARKET;

D O I：

10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105207

中图分类号：

F [经济];

学科分类号：

02 ;

摘要：

Fuel prices are commonly perceived to be excessively high, which regularly triggers political discussions about fuel price regulations. Consumers demand stricter fuel price regulations to provide transparency about the cur-rent price level and to protect them from sudden price fluctuations. Such regulations are already in place in sev-eral countries, but whether they indeed help lower the overall fuel price level is unclear. In this paper, we study the effect of Austria's Fuel Price Fixing Act on gasoline and diesel price levels. Using the synthetic control method, we construct a counterfactual and estimate Austria's price trends in absence of the intervention. Our empirical results suggest that, immediately after the Fuel Price Fixing Act came into effect, gasoline prices are 23.4% lower than the synthetic control predicts. The effect on diesel prices appears to be less pronounced and amounts to 6.6% lower prices. Austria's fuel price regulation seems to have been effective in terms of gasoline prices but may need further refinements to effectively tackle diesel prices as well. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

引用

页数：15

共 59 条

[1] The economic costs of conflict: A case study of the Basque Country [J].