Can Presidents Influence Gas Prices? New Research Fuels the Debate
Oliver was inspired by the stickers he saw on gas pumps showing then-President Joe Biden pointing at the price saying "I did that." Photo by Whoisjohngalt, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Economists have long dismissed the public perception that presidents influence gas prices as economic illiteracy. New research from Georgia Tech economists Dylan Brewer and Matthew Oliver calls that assumption into question, finding significant differences in average gas prices across administrations.
The study is timely, arriving amid widespread public discontent over rising fuel prices, with voter frustrations reflected in a series of national polls blaming the Trump administration.
Although the researchers do not determine how much of the price differences across administrations, if any, are caused by presidents themselves, they argue economists may have been too confident in dismissing the possibility without much direct evidence.
“If economists really think that the president doesn't have influence, the burden of proof is on economists to explain that these differences can't be interpreted as the result of each president's actions," Brewer said.