The tricks they use to stop us getting cheaper petrol
About this episode
The episode explores the reasons behind uniform petrol pricing at stations and features insights from economic experts.
You're driving around looking for petrol, and you notice station after station charging exactly the same price.That could be because they are competing fiercely, and have cut prices to the point where they can't cut them anymore.Or it could be because they've coordinated. Professor David Byrne examined 1.6 million prices in order to find out. Guests: David P. Byrne, Ritchie Chair of Economic Research, The University of Melbourne. Megan Flamer, Senior industry fellow, RMIT University. Referred to: Negotiating Coordination: A Study in Retail Gasoline , David P. Byrne, Nicolas de Roos et al, The University of Melbourne, March 14, 2026 Learning to Coordinate: A Study in Retail Gasoline , David P. Byrne, Nicolas de Roos, The American Economic Review, July 23, 2018 Price Discrimination by Negotiation: a Field Experiment in Retail Electricity , David P Byrne , Leslie A Martin , Jia Sheen Nah, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, April 19, 2022 Consumer search and income inequality , International Journal of Industrial Organization, David P. Byrne, Leslie A. Martin, International Journal of Industrial Organization December 2021
More episodes of The Economy, Stupid
- Why not tax wealth, and why not start with billionaires?
- Home prices are heading down, but how far?
- Is tax reform even possible anymore?
- How to avoid a world on fire
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Economy, Stupid podcast page.