IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rco/dpaper/415.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Whom to Inform about Prices? Evidence from the German Fuel Market

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Montag

    (Tuck School at Dartmouth College)

  • Alina Sagimuldina

    (LMU Munich)

  • Christoph Winter

    (EY-Parthenon)

Abstract

Combining a theoretical model of imperfect information with empirical evidence, we show how the effect of providing price information to consumers depends on how well informed they are beforehand. Theoretically, an increase in consumer information decreases prices more, the fewer ex ante informed consumers there are. Empirically, we study mandatory price disclosure in the German fuel market for two fuel types that differ in ex ante consumer information. The decline in prices is stronger when there are fewer ex ante informed consumers. The magnitude of the treatment effect declines over time but is intensified by local follow-on information campaigns.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Montag & Alina Sagimuldina & Christoph Winter, 2023. "Whom to Inform about Prices? Evidence from the German Fuel Market," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 415, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:415
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/uploads/discussion_paper/415.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Francois Houde, 2012. "Spatial Differentiation and Vertical Mergers in Retail Markets for Gasoline," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2147-2182, August.
    2. Martin, Simon, 2020. "Market transparency and consumer search - Evidence from the German retail gasoline market," DICE Discussion Papers 350, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    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. Ahlin, Christian & Kim, In Kyung & Kim, Kyoo il, 2021. "Who commits fraud? evidence from korean gas stations," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Donald R. Davis & Jonathan I. Dingel & Joan Monras & Eduardo Morales, 2019. "How Segregated Is Urban Consumption?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1684-1738.
    3. Lucas W. Davis, Shaun Mcrae, and Enrique Seira Bejarano, 2019. "An Economic Perspective on Mexico's Nascent Deregulation of Retail Petroleum Markets," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    4. Frederik von Waldow & Heike Link, 2024. "Spatial Competition and Pass-through of Fuel Taxes: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2086, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Christos Genakos & Mario Pagliero, 2022. "Competition and Pass-Through: Evidence from Isolated Markets," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 35-57, October.
    6. Mitsukuni Nishida, 2015. "Estimating a Model of Strategic Network Choice: The Convenience-Store Industry in Okinawa," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 20-38, January.
    7. Saul Lach & José L. Moraga†González, 2017. "Asymmetric Price Effects of Competition," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 767-803, December.
    8. Montag, Felix & Sagimuldina, Alina & Winter, Christoph, 2024. "When does mandatory price disclosure lower prices? Evidence from the German fuel market," Working Papers 344, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    9. Metin Çakır & Joseph V. Balagtas & Abigail M. Okrent & Mariana Urbina‐Ramirez, 2021. "Effects of Package Size on Household Food Purchases," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 781-801, June.
    10. Adhikari, Arnab & Sharma, Megha & Basu, Sumanta & Jha, Ashish Kumar, 2022. "Uniform or spatially differentiated? Pricing Strategies for Information Goods under simultaneous and sequential decision-making in multi-market context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Abe C. Dunn & Mahsa Gholizadeh, 2020. "The Geography of Consumption and Local Economic Shocks: The Case of the Great Recession," BEA Working Papers 0179, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    12. Marie-Laure Allain & Claire Chambolle & Stéphane Turolla & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2013. "The Impact of Retail Mergers on Food Prices: Evidence from France," Working Papers hal-00920460, HAL.
    13. Joel Stiebale & Florian Szücs, 2022. "Mergers and market power: evidence from rivals' responses in European markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(4), pages 678-702, December.
    14. Heijnen, Pim & Soetevent, Adriaan R., 2018. "Price competition on graphs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 161-179.
    15. Javier D. Donna & Pedro Pereira, 2024. "Structural Presumptions for Non-horizontal Mergers in the 2023 Merger Guidelines: A Primer and a Path Forward," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 65(1), pages 303-345, August.
    16. David P. Byrne & Susumu Imai & Vasilis Sarafidis & Masayuki Hirukawa, 2015. "Instrument-free Identification and Estimation of Differentiated Products Models," Working Paper Series 26, Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    17. Pramono, Ari & Oppewal, Harmen, 2021. "Where to refuel: Modeling on-the-way choice of convenience outlet," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    18. Nguyen-Ones, Mai & Steen, Frode, 2018. "Measuring Market Power in Gasoline Retailing: A Market- or Station Phenomenon?," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 6/2018, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    19. Harju, Jarkko & Kosonen, Tuomas & Skans, Oskar Nordström, 2018. "Firm types, price-setting strategies, and consumption-tax incidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 48-72.
    20. Noel, Michael D. & Qiang, Hongjie, 2019. "The role of information in retail gasoline price dispersion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 173-187.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mandatory price disclosure; consumer information; retail fuel market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:rco:dpaper:415. 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: Viviana Lalli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rationality-and-competition.de .

    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.