The influence of gasoline prices and consideration sets on the fuel economy of new vehicle sales

Understanding the factors that influence consumer investment in fuel economy when purchasing a new vehicle is critical for stakeholders including environmental policy makers, automotive manufacturers and oil companies. The energy economics literature shows that consumers are relatively rational in how much fuel economy they purchase in response to changes in gas price. Yet the marketing literature suggests that consumers only consider a small number of vehicle makes/models - as few as 2-6 - when making their purchase decision. Given this, we consider the extent to which consumer's rational response to gas price changes is achieved by including different vehicles in their consideration set, versus choosing differently from within their consideration set. We analyze data from 210,885 responses to a new vehicle customer satisfaction survey collected over 9 years in which respondents state the vehicles they considered purchasing in addition to the vehicle they ultimately purchased. Our findings show that as gasoline prices rise, their purchased vehicle fuel economy increases more than their consideration set average fuel economy does, with both increasing. This is the result of considering more fuel-efficient vehicles and also purchasing higher within their consideration set fuel economy range. The degree to which the consumer adjusts is shown to correspond to the importance they place on the environment during their shopping process. Increased consideration and adoption of alternative fuel vehicles are found to be one mechanism the consumer uses to make these adjustments. Finally, we highlight how changing gasoline prices result in differing consideration set behavior for buyers of low and high fuel economy vehicles.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Ruckdaschel, James David.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David R. Keith.

• Engineering and Management Program.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132862

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/132862