Title

Media, Political Pressure, and the Firm: The Case of Oil Pricing during the Late 1970s

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1990

Department

International Business & Management

Language

English

Publication Title

Quarterly Journal of Economics

Abstract

This paper empirically examines whether major domestic oil companies held down product prices relative to their less visible counterparts during the 1979 oil crisis. We compare company prices on unregulated fuel oil with a measure of political pressure—the level of television coverage of the energy crisis. We find that media coverage influenced home heating oil price ratios, but did not influence residual fuel oil price ratios for the same companies. We argue that this differential pricing pattern is rational in a politically sensitive period.

Comments

For more information on the published version, visit Oxford Journals Website.

DOI

10.2307/2937821

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