Market Power in Retail Gasoline Markets

Abstract

We estimate a structural model to uncover the degree of competition in retail gasoline markets using daily station-level data on quantity and price from the Swedish market. The structural model enables us to consider key features on both the demand and supply side that are important when evaluating retailers’ ability to obtain market power. Endowed with station-level information on service level, contractual form and number of nearby stations, we take into account the main drivers of differentiation in the local market. Our findings suggest that retailers in general exercise significant intermediate levels of market power. Further, local station characteristics significantly affect to which extent stations are able to extract market power. Results are robust to different estimation methods.