Priskonvergens på den europeiska bilmarknaden : Eurons bidrag till priskonvergensen inom EU

In this paper I study the price differences on the European car market with the aim to investigate if there is a price convergence. I also analyse if the euro has had any effects on price convergence on the European market. This paper uses data on list prices for 10 car models in 15 EU-countries over the period 2000-2006. Given the large number of existing studies on price dispersion in the European car market it’s perhaps useful to point out which features of our analysis distinguish the current work from previous research. To compare price differences on the car market, my study uses a composed variable that, to the best of my knowledge has not been used in previous studies in this field. The main results of my study shows that there has been a price convergence on the European car market for every single studied year. The EMU-countries and the ones with pegged exchange rate towards the euro initially had lower price differences but the other countries has had a higher speed of convergence, and by 2006 they have as low price differences