How do Consumers Respond to Gasoline Price Cycles?
利用加拿大安大略省加油站级价格数据和网站流量数据，实证研究消费者如何应对零售汽油价格周期，发现消费者前瞻性囤积行为是价格周期模式的关键驱动因素。
This paper empirically studies how consumers respond to retail gasoline price cycles. Our analysis uses new station-level price data from local markets in Ontario, Canada, and a unique market-level measure of consumer responsiveness based on web traffic from gasoline price reporting websites. We first document how stations use coordinated pricing strategies that give rise to large daily changes in price levels and dispersion in cycling gasoline markets. We then show consumer responsiveness exhibits cycles that move with these price fluctuations. Through a series of tests we find that forward-looking stockpiling behavior by consumers plays a central role in generating these patterns.