Asymmetric gasoline price responses in France

Abstract

This article examines the response of gasoline prices in France to shocks to crude oil prices in the international market. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach of cointegration, we investigate potential price asymmetries in the French diesel and premium gasoline markets using weekly data over the period from May 1990 to April 2011. We find that gasoline prices gradually adjust towards a long-term equilibrium after a shock to the crude oil price, but this adjustment is lower when the crude oil price decreases than when it increases. We also find that the estimates differ slightly depending on the chosen gasoline price.

Keywords:

• gasoline prices
• price asymmetries
• ARDL cointegration

JEL Classification:

• Q41
• Q43