Experimental Gasoline Markets

Zone pricing in wholesale gasoline markets is a contentious topic in the public policy debate. With a controlled laboratory experiment, we investigate the competitive effects of zone pricing on consumers, retail stations, and refiners vis-`a-vis the proposed policy prescription of uniform wholesale pricing to retailers. We also examine the issue of divorcement and the “rockets and feathers” phenomenon. The former is the legal restriction that refiners and retailers cannot be vertically integrated, and the latter is the perception that retail gasoline prices rise faster than they fall in response to random walk movements in the world price for oil. Dr. Bart Wilson works in the Economic Science Institute (ESI) at Chapman University as the Donald P. Kennedy Endowed Chair of Economics and Law in Argyros School of Business and Economics, the School of Law, and the Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences. His broad fields of specialty are industrial organization and experimental economics. He is currently pursuing research on the foundations of exchange and specialization and the origin of property rights systems that undergird it. His other research programs apply the experimental method to topics in e-commerce, electric power deregulation, and antitrust. Prior to joining the faculty at Chapman, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and before that a Research Scientist at the Economic Science Laboratory at the University of Arizona. His first professional position was a yearlong stint in DC as an Economist in the Division of Economic Policy Analysis and the Antitrust Division of the Federal Trade Commission. How to get there: Rm ASB115 is located in the West Wing of the ASB. The ASB is located on middle campus with entry either through the Anzac gate in Anzac Parade, Gate 2 in High Street, or Gate 14 in Barker Street. For those arriving by public transport, bus routes 370 and 400 stop on High Street. For buses running along Anzac Parade, enter the University through the Anzac Gate and make your way up to Science Road, turn left, and left again into Union Road. All day parking is available on the upper floors of the Barker Parking Station. Short Term Meter Parking is available through all Gates on the ground level outdoor parking areas. A map of the UNSW showing the location of the ASB building can be found at http://wwwdocs.fce.unsw.edu.au/fce/current/MapASB07.pdf