TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blass,Asher
AU  - Carlton,Dennis W.
TI  - The Choice of Organizational Form in Gasoline Retailing and The Costs of Laws Limiting that Choice
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7435
PY  - 1999
Y2  - December 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7435
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7435.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Asher Blass
ERCG, Ltd.
Jerusalem, Israel
E-Mail: Asher@ercg.co.il

Dennis W. Carlton
Booth School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 847/217-6000
Fax: 312/322-0262
E-Mail: dennis.carlton@chicagobooth.edu
AB  - This paper uses a new data source to analyze the choice of organizational form of retail gasoline stations.  In recent years, gasoline stations have tended to be less likely to be owned and operated by a lessee dealer and more likely to be owned and operated by the refiner.  Critics have alleged that company-operated stations are used to drive lessee dealer stations out of business in order to restrict competition.  We examine the determinants of organizational form and find them to be based on efficiency not predatory concerns.  We estimate the costs of recent laws prohibiting company ownership of gasoline stations.
ER  -