TY - JOUR

T1 - How to Reach the Paradise? Inside the Edgeworth Cycle and Why a Gasoline Station Is the First to Raise Its Price

AU - Kahl, Mats

AU - Wein, Thomas

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Competition in gasoline retailing is characterized by intraday price cycles in local markets worldwide. The literature describes these as corresponding to the well-known Edgeworth cycles. Previous research has mainly focused on analyzing cycles based on hourly, daily, or weekly average price data. We study the cycle initiation based on second-by-second data for one German town. We find that price considerations are not the main factors in determining which retailers raise prices first, how much they raise them, or whether they succeed. Brand affiliation is more important, and to a lesser extent, so are the services offered and location parameters.

AB - Competition in gasoline retailing is characterized by intraday price cycles in local markets worldwide. The literature describes these as corresponding to the well-known Edgeworth cycles. Previous research has mainly focused on analyzing cycles based on hourly, daily, or weekly average price data. We study the cycle initiation based on second-by-second data for one German town. We find that price considerations are not the main factors in determining which retailers raise prices first, how much they raise them, or whether they succeed. Brand affiliation is more important, and to a lesser extent, so are the services offered and location parameters.

KW - Economics

KW - Tankstellen

KW - Preispolitik

KW - Edgeworth Cycle

KW - Gasoline prices ·

KW - Gasoline market

KW - Dynamic pricing

UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joie.12412

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 2025

SP - 1

EP - 33

JO - Journal of Industrial Economics

JF - Journal of Industrial Economics

SN - 0022-1821

ER -