Gasoline Demand Survey

Abstract

Gasoline demand, which represents almost a quarter of world petroleum consumption, has been the focus of a considerable amount of econometric work since the 1973 oil embargo. However, researchers and policymakers when considering this work are confronted with a bewildering array of elasticities and results that come from a variety of data sets and model types. This survey stratifies these elasticities for statistical analysis and development of summary elasticities, identifies basic issues, and illustrates a strategy for summarizing studies that should be useful to policymakers and researchers in any area of applied work. Because space prohibits discussing all of this work, this survey is limited to those studies that have estimates for gasoline demand, vehicle miles traveled, and miles per gallon.