Fuel tourism in border regions

Banfi, Silvia; Filippini, Massimo; Hunt, Lester C.

doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2005.04.006

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Journal article

Fuel tourism in border regions : the case of Switzerland

Banfi, Silvia Istituto microeconomia e economia pubblica (MecoP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
Filippini, Massimo Istituto microeconomia e economia pubblica (MecoP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
Hunt, Lester C. Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC), Department of Economics, University of Surrey, UK

2005

Published in:

Energy Economics. - Elsevier BV. - 2005, vol. 27, no. 5, p. 689-707

English This paper explores the issue of ‘fuel tourism’ in Switzerland. For the period 1985 to 1987, a panel data model for the border regions of Switzerland, (Italy, France, and Germany) is estimated. The results show a significant impact of the gasoline price differential on demand, suggesting that a decrease of 10% in the Swiss gasoline price leads to a reduction in demand in the border areas of nearly 17½%. It is shown that fuel tourism accounted for about 9% of overall gasoline sales in the three regions during the period 1985 to 1997 and that the recently proposed Swiss CO2-tax might, given current conditions, eliminate net fuel tourism.

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