Exploring retail gasoline prices
On Wednesday, we will launch into a discussion of retail energy topics by looking at retail gasoline prices.
Do the following:
- Visit the website at www.gasbuddy.com.
- Select the “Price Chart” link (on the top menu bar next to “Home”). Initially the chart will show you U.S. and Canada retail price averages over 24 months.
- 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).
- Try these combinations:
o Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles for 6 months. What happened to Atlanta, and to a lesser extent Dallas, but not Los Angeles in September 2008?
o Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Baltimore for 2 years. Why is Cincinnati different?
o Seattle, Denver, and Miami for 3 years, and click the “Show Crude Oil Price” box. Do movements in crude oil prices explain the patterns in gasoline prices?
o 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?
- Explore a few other combinations looking for something interesting to look at.
- 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 for class participation credit.
- “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 unusual and worthy of exploring.
- 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.)
