--%>

Chance for arbitrage

Assume the price of unleaded regular octane gasoline were 20 cents per gallon higher in New Jersey than in Oklahoma.  Do you think there would be chance for arbitrage (that means. that firms could buy gas in Oklahoma and then sell it at profit in New Jersey)?  Why or why not?

Oklahoma and New Jersey stand for separate geographic markets for gasoline due to high transportation costs.  If transportation costs were zero, a price raise in New Jersey would prompt arbitrageurs to buy gasoline in Oklahoma and sell it in New Jersey.  In this case it is unlikely that the 20 cents per gallon difference in costs would be high sufficient to create a profitable opportunity for arbitrage, given both transactions costs & transportation costs.

   Related Questions in Microeconomics

  • Q : More willing to hold less cash and more

    When households become more willing to hold less cash and more stocks or bonds, in that case the: (1) level of Aggregate Demand increases. (2) present value of future income falls. (3) interest rate falls. (4) stock market will crash.

  • Q : Problem on Competitive Equilibrium When

    When a purely competitive firm functions in a competitive resource markets in short run then the firm: (i) Confronts an inelastic supply curve for the output. (ii) Purchases inputs till the net cost of inputs equivalents the net value of outputs. (iii

  • Q : Efficiency and Income Distribution Even

    Even though property rights are fully given and cost-less enforced and transaction costs (i.e., information costs, contracting costs, and mobility costs) are nonexistent, in that case equilibria in all markets in a whole economy may a

  • Q : Estimate price cross-elasticities of

    When the prices rise of Comfort shoes rise through two percent, causing Wonder sock sales to fall through six percent, these goods are _____, and _____ is about the cross price elasticity of demand. (1) luxuries;  6. (2) necessities; 2. (3) subst

  • Q : Minimum Wage Laws-unskilled workers I

    I have a problem in economics on Minimum Wage Laws-unskilled workers. Please help me in the following question. The Minimum wage legislation is unlikely to help: (i) Skilled workers who compete by unskilled workers. (ii) Unskilled workers who don&rsqu

  • Q : What will occur when government taxes a

    When the government taxes a good, the price consumers currently face is most probably: (w) higher than before the tax. (x) below the price the seller receives. (y) less than average production cost. (z) justified through welfare payments to taxpayers.

    Q : Simultaneously and automatically

    When fear that giant firms will default onto their debts drives down the prices of corporate bonds, in that case: (w) established corporations will rely more heavily onto sales of stock to secure funds. (x) interest rates onto these bonds increase sim

  • Q : Economic profits by competitive

    Economic profits produce competitive pressures which cause: (w) each firm’s output to shrink during the short run. (x) an industry’s output to increase. (y) market prices to increase. (z) firms to leave an industry.

    Q : Purely competition on the average This

    This purely competitive brickyard as in below graph on the average experiences an: (w) economic profit of about $135 per day. (x) economic loss of roughly $150 per day. (y) accounting profit of less than $100 per day. (z) accounting loss of more than

  • Q : Most efficient technology at the lowest

    When all goods are produced in highly competitive markets as well as there are no externalities, goods tend to be manufactured: (i) relatively inefficiently. (ii) along with the most efficient technology at the lowest price. (iii) along with maximum p