The tricks they use to stop us getting cheaper petrol

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