The Economics Of Gasoline Regulation: Price Impacts And Consumer Costs Of Environmental Air Quality Programs

This research examines economic impacts of two gasoline regulations designed to combat tropospheric ozone pollution. I construct several fixed effects econometric models to assess impacts of reformulated gasoline and low volatility gasoline on retail gasoline prices and consumer costs. I estimate that reformulated gasoline has had a positive and statistically significant impact on real fuel prices of approximately 3.4 to 6.0 cents per gallon. I estimate that federal low volatility gasoline has had an insignificant price impact of 0.0 to 0.8 cents per gallon, but find that state-level controls more stringent than federal standards may have increased prices by over 8.0 cents per gallon. I also find that both reformulated gasoline and low volatility gasoline price effects likely vary substantially between cities. I present a framework for examining changes in welfare and estimate that over 15 years the reformulated gasoline program has cost consumers between $15.1 billion and $39.0 billion.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S., Agricultural Economics

Level thesis:degree_level

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural Economics

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Gadsden, Michael

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Boisvert, Richard N

• Clean Air Act
• Gasoline
• Ozone

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1813/29157

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/29157