Blair Publishes Research on U.S. Retail Gas Prices

New research on price pass-through in U.S. retail gasoline markets indicates that regional differences in the response of gasoline prices to crude oil price changes exist in both the short and long run.  That finding appears in a 2017 study by the Turner College’s Sarah Turner Butler Distinguished University Chair of Business and Finance Ben Blair and colleagues Randall Campbell of Mississippi State University and Phillip Mixon of Troy University.  The study, which is published in Energy Economics, finds that, depending on the region, a $1 per barrel change in crude oil prices is correlated with a change in retail gasoline pump prices somewhere between 2.36¢ and 2.58¢.  Additionally, Blair and his colleagues find that statistical differences in the speed of adjustment of U.S. retail gasoline prices between regions disappear after two weeks, and that retail gasoline prices in most regions adjust faster to crude oil price increases than for price decreases.