This paper examines the impact of variation in transportation options – what I denote the “supply network” – on observed price differences between locations for a specific good, retail gasoline. I use a unique data set of weekly gasoline prices across 44 Canadian cities to analyze how the existence of variation in the available modes of transportation for gasoline between cities (via pipeline, marine tanker, rail or truck) accounts for observed price differences across locations. I find that the supply network is significant – cities connected by lower cost-per-unit methods like pipelines or seaports exhibit smaller mean- and weekly-price differences than those connected only by road or rail, after controlling for distance, regional effects and market size. A pipeline connection results in a reduction in weekly price dispersion equivalent to a 53% reduction in distance between cities, while a maritime connection has the equivalent effect of a 38% reduction in distance between cities.

中文翻译：

---

加拿大汽油市场的供应网络和价格分散

本文研究了运输方式的变化（我称之为“供应网络”）对特定商品零售汽油在不同地点之间观察到的价格差异的影响。我使用横跨加拿大44个城市的每周汽油价格的独特数据集来分析城市之间（通过管道，海上油轮，铁路或卡车）之间可用的汽油运输方式的差异如何解释观察到的各地价差。我发现供应网络很重要-在控制距离，区域影响和市场之后，通过管道或港口等较低单位成本方法连接的城市与仅通过公路或铁路连接的城市相比，平均价格和每周价格差异较小尺寸。