Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets

摘要

This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study examines the scope and intensity of consumers responses to the upward trend in gasoline prices that began in 2003. Those responses have been large enough to interrupt a pattern of steady growth in total gasoline consumption dating back to 1990, the last time U.S. gasoline prices rose substantially. If current high prices and consumers responses to them persist, the effect on overall gasoline consumption will grow stronger as older, less-fuel efficient vehicles are retired and as consumers consider other, less easily implemented adjustments to their patterns of consumption.