Market Behavior under Partial Price Controls: The Case of the Retail Gasoline Market

摘要

The use of firm-specific controls on the price of gasoline during 1979 and 1980, at both the wholesale and the retail level, dramatically affected the retail market for gasoline. The most visible effect was a diversity of monetary prices across service stations within particular retail market areas. Price could no longer play its usual role in clearing the retail market for gasoline. Queues and other changes in quality of service at stations arose to maintain the balance of market demand and supply. This report examines the behavior of an otherwise competitive market in the presence of such regulation-induced nonprice phenomena. In such a market, consumers consider both monetary prices and costs imposed by queues in deciding where to buy gasoline and how much to buy. Using a price-theoretic model of behavior, this paper predicts how various changes in effective price regulation affect consumers. 14 references, 7 figures, 2 tables. (ERA citation 10:001873)