Price asymmetry in the Dutch retail gasoline market

Abstract

This article analyses the retail price adjustments in the Dutch gasoline market. We estimate an asymmetric error correction model on weekly price changes for the years 1996–2001. We construct five datasets, one for each working day. The conclusions on asymmetric pricing are shown to differ over these datasets, suggesting that the choice of the day for which the prices are observed matters more than commonly believed. In our view, the insufficient robustness of the outcomes might explain the mixed conclusions found in the literature. Using these two approaches, we also show that the effect of asymmetry on the Dutch consumer costs is negligible.