Seminar by Prof. Simon Martin (University of Vienna)

We cordially invite you to attend the third seminar organised as part of the Microeconomics Seminar Series coordinated by Prof. Łukasz Grzybowski. The event will take place on 12 November. The guest speaker will be Prof. Simon Martin, a researcher from the University of Vienna, also affiliated with CESifo and CEPR. His main research area is Industrial Organization, with a focus on digital economics, information frictions and pricing algorithms. More information about his research activity and recent publications is available on the following website: https://sites.google.com/view/simonmartinecon/?pli=1

During the seminar, Prof. Martin will deliver a lecture entitled „Price Caps and Coordinated Effects: Evidence from Retail Gasoline” (the abstract of the presentation is provided below).

The event will begin at 17:00 in room B002.

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Price ceilings are commonly used to protect consumers from excessive price increases, yet their unintended consequences remain understudied. This paper examines whether price ceilings in the Belgian retail gasoline market facilitate tacit coordination among firms, potentially distorting competition. Using daily price data from 2016–2019 for around 3,000 gasoline stations, we assess whether price ceilings serve as focal points that encourage coordinated price-setting. Our findings suggest significant coordination due to price ceilings. This coordination does not only occur at the ceilings, but also to focal points below the ceilings.  Removing price ceilings enhances competition and reduces retail prices by around 3.3%.