Vertical Relationships and Competition in Retail Gasoline Markets: Empirical Evidence from Contract Changes in Southern California: Comment
Christopher T. Taylor, Nicholas M. Kreisle, Paul R. Zimmerman
American Economic Review · 2010 · Volume 100 · Issue 3
Abstract
In a paper in the March 2004 AER, Justine Hastings concludes that the acquisition of an independent gasoline retailer, Thrifty, by a vertically integrated firm, ARCO, is associated with sizable price increases at competing stations. To better understand the mechanism to which she attributes this effect -- which combines vertical integration and rebranding -- we attempted but ultimately failed to reproduce the results using alternative data.
Keywords
Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets, Firm Organization and Market Structure, Vertical Restraints, Resale Price Maintenance, Quantity Discounts, Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels, Retail and Wholesale Trade, e-Commerce
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