Asymmetric pricing dynamics with market power: investigating island data of the retail gasoline market

This paper investigates how and why a link between market power and asymmetric pricing occurs. Analyzing unique island panel data of the Korean gasoline market, we exploit geographic separation as a reliable measure of market power. Our findings confirm a positive correlation between market power and price-response asymmetry. The empirical results on sticky pricing behaviors suggest that tacit collusion is the main channel through which market power influences asymmetric pricing. In addition, we examine the effect of station heterogeneity on asymmetric pricing to provide further evidence of tacit collusion in a localized market.