48,432 research outputs found
Recent developments in the economics of price discrimination
This paper selectively surveys the recent literature on price discrimination. The focus
is on three aspects of pricing decisions: the information about customers available
to firms; the instruments firms can use in the design of their tariffs; and the ability of
firms to commit to their pricing plans. Developments in marketing technology mean
that firms often have access to more information about individual customers than was
previously the case. The use of this information might be restricted by public policy
towards customer privacy. Where it is not restricted, firms may be unable to commit
to the use they make of the information. With monopoly supply, an increased ability
to engage in price discrimination will boost profit unless the firm cannot commit
to its pricing policy. With competition, the effects of price discrimination on profit,
consumer surplus and overall welfare depend on the kinds of information and/or instruments
available to firms. The paper investigates the circumstances in which price
discrimination causes all prices (and hence profit) to fall
Access pricing, bypass and universal service in post
A postal regulator typically faces two issues which make the design of efficient access pricing
especially difficult and which complicate the process of liberalizing the industry. First, universal
service obligations, together with the presence of fixed costs, require retail prices to depart from the
underlying marginal costs of the incumbent provider. Second, competing firms may be able to
bypass the incumbent’s delivery network. Within a simple and stylized framework, this note
analyzes how access charges should best be set in the light of these twin constraints
Development of low temperature battery
Self-contained low temperature battery system consisting of a magnesium anode, potassium thiocyanate-ammonia electrolyte and a cathode composed of a mixture of sulfur, carbon, and mercuric sulfate operates for at least seventy-two hours within a discharge temperature range of plus 20 degrees C to minus 90 degrees C
Two sided markets, competitive bottlenecks and exclusive contracts
We provide a framework for analyzing two-sided markets that allows for different
degrees of product differentiation on each side of the market. When platforms are
viewed as homogenous by sellers but heterogeneous by buyers, we show that “competitive
bottlenecks” arise endogenously. In equilibrium, platforms do not compete directly
for sellers, instead choosing to compete indirectly by subsidizing buyers to join. Sellers
are left with none of the gains from trade. Despite this, it is sellers who choose to
purchase from multiple platforms (multihome). Finally, the role of exclusive contracts
to prevent multihoming is explored
Regulation, competition, and liberalization
In many countries throughout the world, regulators are struggling to determine whether and how to introduce competition into regulated industries. This essay examines the complexities involved in the liberalization process. While stressing the importance of case-specific analyses, this essay distinguishes liberalization policies that generally are pro-competitive from corresponding anti-competitive liberalization policies
Conditioning prices on search behaviour
We consider a market in which �firms can partially observe each consumer's search behavior in the market. In our main model, a �firm knows whether a
consumer is visiting it for the �first time or whether she is returning after a previous visit. Firms have an incentive to offer a lower price on a �first visit than a return visit, so that new consumers are offered a "buy-now" discount. The ability to offer
such discounts acts to raise all prices in the market. If �firms cannot commit to
their buy-later price, in many cases �firms make "exploding" offers, and consumers never return to a previously sampled �rm. Likewise, if �firms must charge the same
price to all consumers, regardless of search history, we show that they sometimes
have the incentive to make exploding offers. We also consider other ways in which
�firms could use information about search behaviour to determine their prices
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