Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10771
Authors: Dieter Pennerstorfer; Philipp Schmidt-Dengler; Nicolas Schutz; Christoph Weiss; Biliana Yontcheva
Abstract: We examine the relationship between information and price dispersion in the retail gasoline market. We first show that the clearinghouse models in the spirit of Stahl (1989) generate an inverted-U relationship between information and price dispersion. We construct a new measure of information based on precise commuter data from Austria. Regular commuters can freely sample gasoline prices on their commuting route, providing us with spatial variation in the share of informed consumers. We use detailed information on gas station level prices to construct price dispersion measures. Our empirical estimates of the relationship are in line with the theoretical predictions.
Keywords: commuter data; price dispersion; retail gasoline; search
JEL Codes: D43; D83; L13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| share of informed consumers (D16) | price dispersion (L11) |