On the effects of suggested prices in gasoline markets

Author(s)
Faber Riemer, Maarten Janssen
Abstract

There is a widespread suspicion that suggested prices act as a focal point for individual firms when setting their prices. Oil companies announce suggested prices for gasoline stations in the Dutch retail market. We show that, compared to the gasoline spot market price, suggested prices contain additional information that explains retail price changes. We conclude that suggested prices have a horizontal coordinating effect in the sense that retail prices react to information that suggested prices contain and that is unrelated to firms’ costs (i.e., the information that firms use under normal competitive conditions).

Organisation(s)
Department of Economics
External organisation(s)
Charles River Associates
Journal
The Scandinavian Journal of Economics
Volume
121
Pages
676-705
No. of pages
30
ISSN
0347-0520
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12289
Publication date
02-2018
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502013 Industrial economics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Economics and Econometrics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/ee7b8f89-0c70-45c5-9b6e-742466f7c8a7