Topics in industrial organization.

• Position: Conference

Topics in Industrial Organization

The NBER held a conference on "Topics in Industrial Organization" in Cambridge on July 31 and August 1. NBER researchers Paul L. Joskow and Nancy L. Rose, both of MIT, organized the following program:

Severin Borenstein, University of Michigan, "Price

Discrimination in Retail Gasoline Markets"

Discussant: Andrea L. Shepard, MIT

Ann F. Friedlaender, MIT, "Efficient Rail Rates and

Deregulation"

Discussant: John R. Meyer, Harvard University

Michael A. Salinger, Columbia University, "A Test of

Successive Monopoly and Foreclosure Effects:

Vertical Integration between Cable Systems and

Pay Service"

Discussant: Paul L. Joskow

Scott E. Masten and Edward A. Snyder, University of

Michigan, and James W. Meehan, Jr., Colby

College, "The Cost of Organization"

Discussant: Ingo Volgelsang, Boston University

Randal R. Rucker, North Carolina State University,

and Keith B. Leffler, University of Washington,

"Transaction Costs and Efficient Organization of

Production: A Study of Timber Harvesting"

Discussant: R. Glenn Hubbard, NBER and Columbia

University

William P. Rogerson, Northwestern University,

"Profit Regulation of Defense Contractors and Prizes

for Innovation" (This paper is summarized in

"Studies of Firms and Industries" in this issue.)

Discussant: Michael D. Whinston, NBER and Harvard

University

James Blumstein, Vanderbilt University; Randall

Bovbjerg, Urban Institute; and Frank A. Sloan,

NBER and Vanderbilt University, "Valuing Life and

Limb in Tort: A Common Law of Damages and

Insurance Contracts for Future Services"

Discussant: Joseph P. Newhouse, Harvard University

Michael Moore and W. Kip Viscusi, Duke University,

"The Effect of Product Liability on Innovation"

Discussant: Roger G. Noll, Stanford University

Ralph Winter, University of Toronto, "The Dynamics

of Competitive Insurance Markets"

Discussant: J. David Cummins, University of

Pennsylvania

Why is the retail margin on regular unleaded gasoline consistently higher than the retail margin on regular leaded gasoline? The average difference grew from less than one cent in 1979 to more than five cents in 1986 but since has fallen to about two-and-a-half cents in 1989. Borenstein finds that cost-based explanations --focusing on differences in inventory costs, average size of purchases, or use of credit cards--explain little, if any, of the levels or changes in margin differences. Using a panel of gasoline prices in 57 SMSAs from 1984 to 1989, Borenstein finds...