Optimal criteria for selecting price discrimination metrics when buyers have log-normally distributed willingness-to-pay

This paper investigates how a monopoly seller should determine the optimal set of pricing variables (pricing metrics) for third-degree price discrimination applications in which buyers have log-normally distributed willingness-to-pay (WTP). In a setup that closely resembles linear and probit regressions, this paper shows that when the monopoly seller is restricted to using one metric and no price discrimination cost exists, the pricing metric that best reduces the residual variance of buyers’ willingness-to-pay is the one that maximizes revenue. Equivalently, the explanatory power of willingness-to-pay is the ordering criterion. This paper also shows that this criterion is not universally true when willingness-to-pay follows other distributions. When the seller incurs price discrimination costs associated with different metrics, the ordering criterion becomes the explanatory power of each pricing metric divided by its cost. This paper also discusses how to apply this model to solve real-world pricing problems with contingent valuation models or using probit regression.

Retail channel price discrimination

This paper examines price differentials of identical items across retail channels. Many consumer packaged goods are sold through both grocery and drug stores. Liquor is unique in that in much of the country there is a third retail channel of distribution, liquor stores. If consumers in each retail channel differ in their willingness to pay for certain items, then sellers can exploit those differences and charge different prices for the same items in each channel. We examine a unique data set of pooled cross sectional retail scanner data on wine to test whether sellers use retail channel to identify heterogeneous consumer market segments and engage in price discrimination. We begin by presenting a model of price discrimination by retail channel along with behavioural assumptions regarding shoppers in each channel. Next we examine sales by retail channel and find persistent price differentials for the same item across retail channel after controlling for sample selection bias and seasonality. Lastly, we estimate the price elasticity of demand correcting for endogeneity and find differences across channel consistent with the price differentials. The extent of price differential, however, differs significantly with respect to price point.     

Consumer heterogeneity in the longer-term effects of price promotions

While a significant literature has emerged recently on the longer-term effects of price promotions, as inferred from persistence models, there is very little if any attention paid to whether such longer-term effects vary across different types of consumers. This paper takes a first step in that direction by exploring whether the adjustment, permanent, and total effects of price promotions, and the duration of the adjustment period, differ between consumers segmented based on their usage rates in a product category and their loyalty to a brand. We also investigate whether such consumer segmentation will improve the forecasting performance of persistence models at both product category and brand levels. Expectations are developed based on consumer behavior theory on various effects of price promotions, such as the post-deal trough, the mere purchase effect, the promotion usage effect, and responsiveness to competitor's reactions. Evidence from household-level supermarket scanner data on four product categories is provided. We find substantial differences between consumer segments and provide insights on how managers can increase the longer-term effectiveness of price promotions by targeting each consumer segment with a different promotion program. In addition, consumer segmentation is found to significantly improve the forecasting performance of the persistence model for two of the four product categories. For the other two product categories, consumer segmentation provides forecasting performance similar to that obtained from aggregate-level persistence models.     

Consumer responses to price discrimination: Discriminating bases, inequality status, and information disclosure timing influences

This study broadly explores consumers' perceived unfairness, negative emotions, internal reference price, and store choice under five common methods of price discrimination using two experimental studies. Study 1 investigates the interaction between discriminating bases and inequality status. Results reveal that discriminating bases only influence perceived unfairness for advantaged consumers, but affect all four responses for disadvantaged consumers. For disadvantaged consumers, direct discrimination that complies with social norms evokes the weakest unfavorable responses, whereas direct discrimination against social norms triggers the highest perception of unfairness and negative emotions but has similar effects on internal reference price and store choice to indirect discrimination. Study 2 examines the effect of information disclosure timing by comparing pre- and post-purchase disclosure policies. Results show that post-purchase disclosure of discrimination information elicits higher negative emotions for indirect discrimination involving coupon and purchase quantity, but is rather inconsequential for direct discrimination or indirect discrimination through membership.     

A model of latent symmetry in cross price elasticities

This paper develops the Latent Symmetric Elasticity Structure (LSES), a market share price elasticity model which allows elasticities to be decomposed into two components: a symmetric substitution index revealing the strength of competition between brand pairs, and a brand-specific coefficient revealing the overall impact of a brand on its competitors. An application of the model to unconstrained cross price elasticities shows that brand-price competition in one market is well-represented by a LSES model in which brand substitutability and elasticity asymmetry are related to average price level.This research was supported by the Dean's Fund for Faculty Research of the Owen School.     

The promise and problems of price subsidization in social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship research has often focused on the benefits and challenges of designing hybrid organizations that integrate competing institutional logics to tackle social problems using market-based methods, especially in developing economies. Drawing on case evidence from the Safe Water for Africa program, we show how and why pricing new products at other than market prices offers a seductive but dangerous mechanism for managers seeking to pursue dual objectives in hybrid organizations. We identify five strategic and operational challenges with ethical implications that manifest as pricing dilemmas and show how and why they are likely to elicit moral dilemmas among stakeholders of social entrepreneurship who are not equally committed to both social and economic objectives.     

Price competition in retailing: The importance of the price density function

Focusing on two determinant aspects of retail competition, prices and catchment area, this paper aims to specifically investigate the importance of the relative price density function. We answer such questions as whether it pays for a store to offer more low-priced items in a given category than its close competitors and whether a retailer should have a consistent assortment in terms of price tier frequency across all categories. To tackle these issues, we use a store-level panel database provided by IRI covering 34 categories and 150 stores in one province.     

我国进行国际税收竞争的最优战略与策略分析

本文依据国际税收竞争对我国的积极意义以及我国是发展中大国的战略定位,认为我国应该采取"积极、适度竞争,理性、必要协调"的战略;在竞争策略的选择上,通过对我国主要资本来源国对待本国资本海外投资的规定以及竞争对手国吸引外资相关做法的研究,提出我国应选择"低税率、宽税基、少优惠"的竞争方式和手段,并应注重形成有比较竞争力的税收制度,而不应进行频繁的政策调整.     

地区竞争、土地供给结构与中国城市住房价格

为了分析地区竞争下地方政府间土地供给结构的策略互动及其对住房价格的影响,本文在归纳梳理中国土地供应法规特征的基础上,构建一个同时考虑居住用地需求和工业用地需求的两城市模型,探讨地方政府干预土地供给结构的动机及其经济后果,并基于2006—2015年城市面板数据对提出的理论假说进行检验。研究发现,在城市建设用地总量受约束的条件下,地方政府有激励以减少居住用地为代价提高工业用地供给,进行招商引资竞争;与市场起主导作用的情形相比,地方政府干预土地供给结构时,工业用地的供应量更高,居住用地的供应量则偏低,工业地价与居住用地的价格差异增大;地方政府对土地供给结构的干预,从供给和需求两方面共同推高了房价。此外,地方政府干预土地供给结构会影响到相邻地区的供地策略。研究对加快推进房地产市场长效机制改革、从供给侧解决高房价问题具有启示意义。     

Price Discrimination and the Cruise Line Industry: Implications for Market Definition,Competition, and Consumer Welfare

This article extends the price discrimination literature and applies it to market definition and competitive effects analysis in recent mergers in the cruise line industry. In that industry, short run output is fixed. If firms want to increase price and restrict output to price‐insensitive customers, they have to increase the output and lower price to the price‐sensitive customers. We show that with fixed output (1) it is in firms’ interest to engage in price discrimination, (2) firms have increased ability to engage profitably in price discrimination as the intensity of competition decreases, and (3) the average price of price‐sensitive and ‐insensitive consumers increase with reduced competition. Unlike the economists at the Federal Trade Commission, our analysis suggests that cruise lines engage in third‐degree price discrimination. Moreover, the cruise industry could be a separate market and a reduction in the number of competitors might raise average prices.     

Actual and perceived consumer vigilance in the retail grocery industry

Economic theory suggests that price competition is in part driven by actively searching buyers. An exploratory study in a major midwestern grocery market revealed that executives responsible for pricing decisions overestimate the size of the price-driven shopping segment. The reasons behind this perception and its impact on pricing decisions are examined.     

Probabilistic selling vs. markdown selling: Price discrimination and management of demand uncertainty in retailing

Markdown selling (i.e., price reductions over the course of the selling season) is a strategy to implement price discrimination and to manage market uncertainty that has been widely adopted by retailers. This paper explores the potential advantage of introducing an additional tool to the arsenal of retailers, probabilistic selling (i.e., offering consumers a choice to buy a product that can turn out to be any item from a predetermined set of distinct items). We show that both probabilistic and markdown selling strategies serve as price discrimination tools by offering buyers an option to purchase a “damaged” good (an uncertain product under the former and delayed consumption of a product under the latter). However, the two strategies segment markets based on different types of buyer heterogeneity: buyer preference strength under probabilistic selling and buyer patience under markdown selling. Our analytical model reveals that, compared with markdown selling, probabilistic selling can (1) improve margin management by increasing revenue from full-price sales and reducing the magnitude of discounts; and (2) improve inventory utilization by reducing stockouts and the amount of excess inventory. We identify the conditions required for probabilistic selling to be more profitable than markdown selling.     

Eliciting and estimating reservation price: A semi-compensatory approach

This study proposes a two-stage method to elicit consumers' price acceptability range. The method combines a conjunctive stage to elicit price acceptability limits with a utility-based stage to choose a preferred product variation. The method is efficient in choice situations entailing many multi-attribute product variations under partial information conditions. A semi-compensatory model complements the method by jointly representing the conjunctive stage with multiple ordered-response models and the choice stage with a multinomial logit model. A case study of ceiling reservation price (CRP) elicitation for students' rental apartment choice shows (i) CRP distribution for different product variations, (ii) model estimation unraveling CRP determinants, and (iii) linkage between CRP and transaction price.     

空间竞争、房价收入比与房价

本文通过构建一个房地产市场空间竞争模型,分别就Cournot竞争和价格合谋情形,探讨了开发商的位置及其密度如何影响均衡开发量、房价和社会福利.本文的基本结论是:空间竞争决定了房价,而非房价收入比;市场决定的价格不一定为合理性价格;房价与市中心距离和开发商密度成反比;空间垄断是房价刚性的根本原因.因此,要将刚性房价降下来,政府一方面应将大项目拆分为小项目,促进竞争,另一方面应对空间垄断进行管制.     

Vertical and financial ownership: Competition policy and the evolution of the UK pub market

Abstract

Traditionally the UK brewing industry was vertically integrated with brewers owning and controlling pubs. This came to an abrupt end in the forced divestment of a large proportion of the major brewers' pub estates in the 1989 ‘Beer Orders’. The divested pubs spawned the independent pub companies. This study of regulatory policy and financial services interest in the UK brewing industry poses the question of whether the original industrial structure was preferable to what has emerged subsequently. The contribution of the article is in highlighting the risks and rewards of regulatory intervention in deeply-embedded organisation and the sustainability of alternative business models that emerge.     

全球性竞争政策及其对我国的启示

竞争政策旨在保护和促进竞争,目前在这一领域的国际协调成效并不显著.随着经济全球化的深入发展,在世界范围内建立统一的竞争政策的要求日益迫切,在此背景下西方学者提出创建全球性竞争政策的观点,主张将竞争政策纳入多边贸易体制.竞争政策的国际化需要贸易政策等其他经济政策作出相应协调与配合.我国对全球性竞争政策的建立应采取积极态度,并以此为契机完善国内竞争体系,调整其他相关经济政策,在竞争中求发展.     

Intertemporal price discrimination with forward-looking consumers: Application to the US market for console video-games

Firms in durable good product markets face incentives to intertemporally price discriminate, by setting high initial prices to sell to consumers with the highest willingness to pay, and cutting prices thereafter to appeal to those with lower willingness to pay. A critical determinant of the profitability of such pricing policies is the extent to which consumers anticipate future price declines, and delay purchases. I develop a framework to investigate empirically the optimal pricing over time of a firm selling a durable-good product to such strategic consumers. Prices in the model are equilibrium outcomes of a game played between forward-looking consumers who strategically delay purchases to avail of lower prices in the future, and a forward-looking firm that takes this consumer behavior into account in formulating its optimal pricing policy. The model outlines first, a dynamic model of demand incorporating forward-looking consumer behavior, and second, an algorithm to compute the optimal dynamic sequence of prices given these demand estimates. The model is solved using numerical dynamic programming techniques. I present an empirical application to the market for video-games in the US. The results indicate that consumer forward-looking behavior has a significant effect on optimal pricing of games in the industry. Simulations reveal that the profit losses of ignoring forward-looking behavior by consumers are large and economically significant, and suggest that market research that provides information regarding the extent of discounting by consumers is valuable to video-game firms.

How price complexity takes its toll: The neglected role of a simplicity bias and fairness in price evaluations

Marketing managers commonly employ complex price plans. Surprisingly, limited and conflicting evidence reports how customers perceive and react to complex prices. This study examines perceptions about price complexity and shows that customers tend to prefer simple prices. Two experimental studies show that perceived price complexity negatively affects customer perceptions of price fairness and influences product choice because customers negatively evaluate the transparency of the firm's pricing practices and infer higher total prices. Customers comparing alternate offerings may therefore prefer simple over complex prices, even when the latter are less expensive. Study results suggest limiting price plan variations positively affects customer inferences about transparency and fairness, and thus customer choice.     

Export market re-entry: Time-out period and price/quality dynamisms

The relevance of nonlinear internationalisation regarding exporting activities and the performance post re-entry remains little understood. This study develops a two-stage model to explain the process of exporting firms’ exit and re-entry decisions regarding individual export markets. Specifically, it investigates the dynamic relationships between exit and re-entry stages by focusing on the time-out period. This study empirically tests the decision model by employing export data from the Chinese Customs for the period 2000-2009. The results indicate the importance of the exit stage in shaping re-entry decisions, price/quality ratio and export performance, where time-out period plays a significant role in varying these effects.