College Move-in and the Prices at the "Pumps"

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Date

2010-12

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The Ohio State University

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Abstract

Every year, in the late summer or the early fall, students flock back to college towns in preparation for the beginning of classes. The purpose of this project is to examine if this mass migration to college towns has any effect on the prices at "the pumps", specifically on the date when residence halls open ("move-in day"). We gathered data from stations in college towns across the country and put them together into a panel data set. We have used multiple difference-in-difference regression analyses to see if there was a change between gasoline prices in one city’s gas stations during their university’s move-in day and other cities’ gasoline prices on the same day. Interestingly, our results not only show strong support for an increase in prices on the move-in day, but they even indicate a larger move-in effect that lasts at least a week before and over two weeks after the initial move-in.

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Retail Gasoline Market, Prices, Tourists / Natives Model, Econometric Analysis

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