A new price test in geographic market definition: an application to German retail gasoline market
Publication date
2018
Document type
Working paper
Author
Bantle, Melissa
Muijs, Matthias
Editor
Organisational unit
Publisher
Helmut-Schmidt-Universität / Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Department of Economics
Periodical volume
2018
Periodical issue
180 (August)
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
Market delineation is a fundamental tool in modern antitrust analysis. However, the definition of relevant markets can be very difficult in practice. This preliminary draft applies a new methodology combining a simple price correlation test with hierarchical clustering -a method known from machine learning- in order to analyze the competitive situation in the German retail gasoline market. Our analysis reveals two remarkable results: At first, there is a uniform pattern across stations of the same brand regarding their maximum daily prices which confirms the claim that prices are partly set centrally. But more importantly, price reactions are also influenced by regional or local market conditions as the price setting of gasoline stations is strongly affected by commuter routes.
Version
Not applicable (or unknown)
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access