Texas Tech University.

 

 

Exploring retail gasoline prices

On Wednesday, October 21, we will launch into a discussion of retail gasoline markets.

As a introduction to retail gasoline prices, do the following:

  1. Go to www.gasbuddy.com online.
  2. Select the “Gas Price Charts” link (in the Home/Top Features menu bar).  Initially the chart will show you U.S. retail price average over 24 months.
  3. Using the drop down menus in the “customize price charts” box below the chart, explore price patterns for different cities and over different time periods (as short as one month, as long as 6 years).
  4. Try these combinations:
    • Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles for 18 months. What happened to Atlanta, and to a lesser extent Dallas, but not Los Angeles in September 2008?
    • Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia for 2 years. What is different about Cincinnati?
    • Denver, Miami, and Seattle for 5 years, and click the “Show Crude Oil Price” box. Do movements in crude oil prices explain the patterns in gasoline prices?
    • Arizona, Texas, and North Carolina for 6 years. Do prices in Texas move more in line with prices in Arizona or prices in North Carolina? Why?
  5. Explore a few other cities looking for something interesting to look at.
  6. BRING TO CLASS a printout of a price chart showing (1) three price lines (or four if you include the crude oil price), (2) that presents something interesting to talk about, and (3) put your name on it and turn it in at the end of class for homework credit.
  7. “Something interesting” means, for example, a price spike in one city that doesn’t show up elsewhere, or prices that move together and then sharply move apart, or some other trend or movement in the lines that seems notable.  Explain what is notable about your combination of cities and try to explain what happened.
  8. Feel free to work with your classmates on this task, but bring in a chart that is different from the work of others in your group. (With more than 120 million possible combinations of price charts and time periods, you should be able to find a unique combination.)