Is there an asymmetry in the response of diesel and petrol prices to crude oil price changes? Evidence from New Zealand

Ming-Hua Liu, Dimitris Margaritis and Alireza Tourani-Rad

Energy Economics, 2010, vol. 32, issue 4, 926-932

Abstract: This paper examines how pre-tax petrol and diesel prices in New Zealand respond to changes in crude oil prices using an asymmetric error correction model. Our results show that oil companies adjust diesel prices upwards faster than they adjust them downwards, and the difference is statistically significant. However we find no statistical evidence for an asymmetry in the adjustment of petrol prices even though the magnitude of estimated coefficients suggests a faster response to rising prices. As diesel pricing is not as competitive as petrol pricing, calls for further government actions and monitoring of the oil market may be justified. Our findings also have important implications for the conduct of monetary policy as the pass-through of crude oil price changes can affect cost-push inflation.

Keywords: Fuel; pricing; Petrol; price; Diesel; price; Asymmetric; adjustment; Price; rigidity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140-9883(10)00002-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:32:y:2010:i:4:p:926-932

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().