IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v124y2023ics0140988323002761.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is market power the cause of asymmetric pricing in China's refined oil market?

Author

Listed:
  • He, Yongda
  • Lin, Boqiang

Abstract

The asymmetric response of Chinese refined oil prices to crude oil prices is essentially an issue of economic efficiency, and the collusion of the oil oligarchs is not conducive to the market-oriented reform and economic sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to test whether the prices of refined oil products in China does indeed have the asymmetric fluctuations of “rising more and falling less”, and to analyze whether there are unreasonable pricing behaviors colluding among oil companies. We first examine the relationship between refined oil prices and the crude oil price by applying the NARDL using the monthly data from June 2000 to May 2021, and then designs a two-stage regression process based on the EGARCH model to check whether the asymmetric pricing is the result of the market power formed by the oligopolistic collusion. The results show that the asymmetric reaction of gasoline and diesel prices to crude oil prices in China is basically the same. Only the long-run asymmetry has been confirmed while the short-run asymmetry has not passed the test. The long-term equilibrium price amid fluctuations in Chinese refined oil prices is slowly being pulled higher, most likely due to the increased market power of oil companies. Long term asymmetry means that the oligopoly market equilibrium is approaching monopoly. The cause is in the refining segment of refined oil, not in the retail segment because the EGARCH model has only successfully identified the market power in the refining sector. The joint tests indicate that the oil oligarchs may have passed the cost information, which is conducive to raising prices in the long term, to the price regulators, and there is an unreasonable part of China's refined oil prices that undermine market efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Yongda & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Is market power the cause of asymmetric pricing in China's refined oil market?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:124:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323002761
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323002761
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106778?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
    2. Karagiannis, Stelios & Panagopoulos, Yannis & Vlamis, Prodromos, 2015. "Are unleaded gasoline and diesel price adjustments symmetric? A comparison of the four largest EU retail fuel markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 281-291.
    3. Colin Bermingham & Derry O'Brien, 2011. "Testing for Asymmetric Pricing Behaviour in Irish and UK Petrol and Diesel Markets," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-26.
    4. Severin Borenstein & Andrea Shepard, 2002. "Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(1), pages 116-139, Spring.
    5. Sam Peltzman, 2000. "Prices Rise Faster than They Fall," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 466-502, June.
    6. Ju, Keyi & Zhou, Dequn & Zhou, P. & Wu, Junmin, 2014. "Macroeconomic effects of oil price shocks in China: An empirical study based on Hilbert–Huang transform and event study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1053-1066.
    7. Rezitis, Anthony N. & Stavropoulos, Konstantinos S., 2009. "Modeling Pork Supply Response and Price Volatility: The Case of Greece," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 41(1), pages 1-18, April.
    8. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    9. Bettendorf, Leon & van der Geest, Stephanie A. & Varkevisser, Marco, 2003. "Price asymmetry in the Dutch retail gasoline market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 669-689, November.
    10. Perron, Pierre, 1989. "The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1361-1401, November.
    11. Boroumand, Raphaël Homayoun & Goutte, Stéphane & Porcher, Simon & Porcher, Thomas, 2016. "Asymmetric evidence of gasoline price responses in France: A Markov-switching approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 467-476.
    12. Zhang, Chuanguo & Tu, Xiaohua, 2016. "The effect of global oil price shocks on China's metal markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 131-139.
    13. Bacon, Robert W., 1991. "Rockets and feathers: the asymmetric speed of adjustment of UK retail gasoline prices to cost changes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 211-218, July.
    14. Jens-Peter Loy & Carsten Steinhagen & Christoph Weiss & Birgit Koch, 2018. "Price transmission and local market power: empirical evidence from the Austrian gasoline market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(53), pages 5728-5746, November.
    15. repec:bla:opecrv:v:33:y:2009:i:3-4:p:205-224 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Beirne, John & Beulen, Christian & Liu, Guy & Mirzaei, Ali, 2013. "Global oil prices and the impact of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 37-51.
    17. Engle, Robert F & Ng, Victor K, 1993. "Measuring and Testing the Impact of News on Volatility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1749-1778, December.
    18. Ling, Shiqing & McAleer, Michael, 2002. "Stationarity and the existence of moments of a family of GARCH processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 109-117, January.
    19. Lance J. Bachmeier & James M. Griffin, 2003. "New Evidence on Asymmetric Gasoline Price Responses," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 772-776, August.
    20. Severin Borenstein & A. Colin Cameron & Richard Gilbert, 1997. "Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 305-339.
    21. Huanxing Yang & Lixin Ye, 2008. "Search with learning: understanding asymmetric price adjustments," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(2), pages 547-564, June.
    22. Grasso, Margherita & Manera, Matteo, 2007. "Asymmetric error correction models for the oil-gasoline price relationship," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 156-177, January.
    23. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    24. Chen, Li-Hsueh & Finney, Miles & Lai, Kon S., 2005. "A threshold cointegration analysis of asymmetric price transmission from crude oil to gasoline prices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 233-239, November.
    25. Yufeng Chen & Guobin Huang & Lihua Ma, 2017. "Rockets and Feathers: The Asymmetric Effect between China’s Refined Oil Prices and International Crude Oil Prices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-19, March.
    26. Balaguer, Jacint & Ripollés, Jordi, 2012. "Testing for price response asymmetries in the Spanish fuel market. New evidence from daily data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2066-2071.
    27. Turk Ariss, Rima, 2010. "On the implications of market power in banking: Evidence from developing countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 765-775, April.
    28. Contín-Pilart, Ignacio & Correljé, Aad F. & Blanca Palacios, M., 2009. "Competition, regulation, and pricing behaviour in the Spanish retail gasoline market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 219-228, January.
    29. Apergis, Nicholas & Vouzavalis, Grigorios, 2018. "Asymmetric pass through of oil prices to gasoline prices: Evidence from a new country sample," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 519-528.
    30. Ghulam Ali, 2013. "EGARCH, GJR-GARCH, TGARCH, AVGARCH, NGARCH, IGARCH and APARCH Models for Pathogens at Marine Recreational Sites," Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 2(3), pages 1-6.
    31. Anthony N Rezitis & Konstantinos S Stavropoulos, 2009. "Modeling sheep supply response under asymmetric price volatility and cap reforms," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 512-522.
    32. Robert P. Rogers, 2003. "The Effect of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) Regulation of Petroleum Product Prices, 1976-1981," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 63-93.
    33. MacKinnon, James G, 1996. "Numerical Distribution Functions for Unit Root and Cointegration Tests," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 601-618, Nov.-Dec..
    34. Valadkhani, Abbas & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "Asymmetric responses in the timing, and magnitude, of changes in Australian monthly petrol prices to daily oil price changes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 89-100.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pal, Debdatta & Mitra, Subrata K., 2016. "Asymmetric oil product pricing in India: Evidence from a multiple threshold nonlinear ARDL model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 314-328.
    2. José María Martín-Moreno & Rafaela Pérez & Jesús Ruiz, 2019. "Evidence about asymmetric price transmission in the main European fuel markets: from TAR-ECM to Markov-switching approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1383-1412, April.
    3. Bragoudakis, Zacharias & Degiannakis, Stavros & Filis, George, 2019. "Oil and pump prices: Is there any asymmetry in the Greek oil downstream sector?," MPRA Paper 95407, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Apergis, Nicholas & Vouzavalis, Grigorios, 2018. "Asymmetric pass through of oil prices to gasoline prices: Evidence from a new country sample," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 519-528.
    5. Abdhut Deheri & Stefy Carmel, 2024. "Do fluctuations in global crude oil prices have an asymmetric effect on oil product pricing in India?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Abdhut Deheri & Stefy Carmel, 2024. "Are the Responses of Oil Products Prices Asymmetrical to Global Crude Oil Price Shocks? Evidence from India," Working Papers 2024-265, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    7. Polemis, Michael L. & Fotis, Panagiotis N., 2014. "The taxation effect on gasoline price asymmetry nexus: Evidence from both sides of the Atlantic," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 225-233.
    8. Perdiguero-García, Jordi, 2013. "Symmetric or asymmetric oil prices? A meta-analysis approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 389-397.
    9. Sylwester Bejger, 2019. "Wholesale fuel price adjustment in Poland: examination of competi-tive performance," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(4), pages 385-412, December.
    10. Balaguer, Jacint & Ripollés, Jordi, 2012. "Testing for price response asymmetries in the Spanish fuel market. New evidence from daily data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2066-2071.
    11. Kristoufek, Ladislav & Lunackova, Petra, 2015. "Rockets and feathers meet Joseph: Reinvestigating the oil–gasoline asymmetry on the international markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-8.
    12. Bragoudakis, Zacharias & Degiannakis, Stavros & Filis, George, 2020. "Oil and pump prices: Testing their asymmetric relationship in a robust way," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Ederington, Louis H. & Fernando, Chitru S. & Hoelscher, Seth A. & Lee, Thomas K. & Linn, Scott C., 2019. "A review of the evidence on the relation between crude oil prices and petroleum product prices," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 1-15.
    14. Balaguer, Jacint & Ripollés, Jordi, 2016. "Asymmetric fuel price responses under heterogeneity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 281-290.
    15. Karagiannis, Stelios & Panagopoulos, Yannis & Vlamis, Prodromos, 2015. "Are unleaded gasoline and diesel price adjustments symmetric? A comparison of the four largest EU retail fuel markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 281-291.
    16. Bremmer, Dale S. & Kesselring, Randall G., 2016. "The relationship between U.S. retail gasoline and crude oil prices during the Great Recession: “Rockets and feathers” or “balloons and rocks” behavior?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 200-210.
    17. Katarzyna Leszkiewicz-Kędzior & Aleksander Welfe, 2014. "Asymmetric Price Adjustments in the Fuel Market," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 6(2), pages 105-127, June.
    18. Zacharias Bragoudakis & Dimitrios Sideris, 2019. "Asymmetric price adjustment and the effects of structural reforms in a low income environment: the case of the gasoline market in Greece," Working Papers 274, Bank of Greece.
    19. D. O. Olayungbo & T. A. Ojeyinka, 2022. "Crude oil prices pass-through to retail petroleum product prices in Nigeria: evidence from hidden cointegration approach," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 951-972, May.
    20. Deltas, George & Polemis, Michael, 2020. "Estimating retail gasoline price dynamics: The effects of sample characteristics and research design," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:124:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323002761. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.