1. Chapter 12
Pricing

2. Key issues why and how firms price discriminate
perfect price discrimination
quantity discrimination
multimarket price discrimination
two-part tariffs
tie-in sales

3. Nonuniform pricing prices vary across customers or units
noncompetitive firms use nonuniform pricing to increase profits

4. Single-price firm
nondiscriminating firm faces a trade-off between charging
maximum price to consumers who really want good
low enough price that less enthusiastic customers still buy
as a result, single-price firm usually sets an intermediate price

5. Price-discriminating firm
avoids this trade-off
earns a higher profit by charging
higher price to those willing to pay more than the uniform price: captures their consumer surplus
lower price to those not willing to pay as much as the uniform price: extra sales

6. Extreme examples of tradeoff
maximum customers will pay for a movie:
college students, $10
senior citizens, $5
theater holds all potential customers, so MC = 0
no cost to showing the movie,
so  = revenue

7. Profit from 10 College Students
Example 12.1a
Pricing
Profit from 10 College Students
Profit from 20 Seniors
Total Profit
Uniform, $5
$50
$100
$150
Uniform, $10 $0
Price discriminate
$200

8. Profit from 10 College Students
Example 12.1b
Pricing
Profit from 10 College Students
Profit from 5 Seniors
Total Profit
Uniform, $5
$50
$25
$75
Uniform, $10
$100 $0
Price discriminate
$125

9. Broadway theaters
increase their profits 5% by price discriminating rather than by setting uniform prices

10. Geographic price discrimination
admission to Disneyland is $38 for out-of-state adults and $28 for southern Californians
tuition at New York’s Fordham University is $4,000 less for commuting first-year students than for others

11. Successful price discrimination
requires that firm have market power
consumers have different demand elasticities, and firm can identify how consumers differ
firm must be able to prevent or limit resales to higher-price-paying customers by others

12. Preventing resales
resales are difficult or impossible when transaction costs are high
resales are impossible for most services

13. Prevent resales by raising transaction costs
price-discriminating firms raise transaction costs to make resales difficult
applications:
U.C. Berkeley requires anyone with a student ticket to show a student picture ID
Nikon warranties cover only cameras sold in this country

14. Prevent resales by vertically integrating
VI: participate in more than one successive stage of the production and distribution chain for a good or service
VI into the low-price purchasers

15. Prevent resales by government intervention
governments require that milk producers charge higher price for fresh use than for processing (cheese, ice cream) and forbid resales
governments set tariffs limiting resales by making it expensive to import goods from lower-price countries
governments used trade laws to prevent sales of certain brand-name perfumes except by their manufacturers

16. Flight of the Thunderbirds
2002 production run of 25,000 new Thunderbirds included only 2,000 for Canada
potential buyers are besieging Ford dealers in Canada
many hope to make a quick profit by reselling these cars in the United States
reselling is relatively easy and shipping costs are relatively low
why a T-Bird south?
Ford is price discriminating between U.S. and Canadian customers
at the end of 2001, Canadians were paying $56,550 Cdn. (Thunderbird with the optional hardtop), while U.S. customers were spending up to $73,000 Cdn.

17. Thunderbirds (cont.)
Canadian dealers try not to sell to buyers who will export the cars
dealers have signed an agreement with Ford that explicitly prohibits moving vehicles to the United States
dealers try to prevent resales because otherwise Ford may cut off their Thunderbirds or remove their dealership license
one dealer said, “It’s got to the point that if we haven’t sold you a car in the past, or we don’t otherwise know you, we’re not selling you one.”
nonetheless, many Thunderbirds were exported: eBay listed dozen of these cars on a typical day

18. 3 types of price discrimination
perfect price discrimination (first-degree): sell each unit for the most each customer is willing to pay
quantity discrimination (second-degree): charges a different price for larger quantities than for smaller ones
multimarket price discrimination (third-degree): charge groups of customers different prices

19. Perfect-price-discriminating monopoly
has market power
can prevent resales
knows how much each customer is willing to pay for each unit purchase (all knowing)

20. All-knowing monopoly sells each unit at its reservation price
maximum price consumers will pay (captures all possible consumer surplus)
height of demand curve
MR is the same as its price (AR)

21. Figure 12.1 Perfect Price Discrimination
, $ per unit 6 5 e 4 MC 3 MR
= $6 MR
= $5 MR
= $4
Demand, Marginal revenue 1 2 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 Q
, Units per day

22. Perfect price discrimination properties
perfect price discrimination is efficient
competition and a perfectly discriminating monopoly
sell the same quantity
maximize total welfare: W = CS + PS
have no deadweight loss
consumers worse off (CS = 0) than with competition

23. s c d p
, $ per unit E D C B A Q
, Units per day = MC
Demand, MR e 1

24. Amazon
in 2000, Amazon revealed that it used “dynamic pricing”: gauges shopper’s desire and means, charges accordingly
example
a man ordered DVD of Julie Taymor’s “Titus” at $24.49
checks back next week and finds price is $26.24
removes cookie: price fell to $22.74
after newspaper articles, Amazon announced it had dropped this policy

25. Botox revisited
how much more would Allergan earn from Botox if it could perfectly price discriminate?

26. Application Botox Revisited, $
per
vial
143.0 A ≈
$187.5
million e
75.0 s
Demand B ≈
$375 million C ≈
$187.5 million e c
7.5 MC
1.30
2.61
2.75 MR Q
, Million daily doses of Botox

27. Solved problem
How does welfare change if firm in Table 12.1 goes from charging a single price to perfectly price discriminating?

28. Profit from 10 College Students
Table 12.1a
Pricing
Profit from 10 College Students
Profit from 20 Seniors
Total Profit
Uniform, $5
$50
$100
$150
Uniform, $10 $0
Price discriminate
$200

29. Answer: Panel a
welfare is same with single price or price discrimination because output unchanged
single price: if theater sets a single price of $5
it sells 30 tickets and  = $150
20 seniors pay their reservation price so CS = 0
10 college students (reservation prices of $10) have CS = $50
welfare = $200 = profit ($150) + consumer surplus ($50)

30. If firm perfectly price discriminates
it charges all customers their reservation price so there’s no consumer surplus
seniors pay $5 and college students, $10
firm's profit rises to $200
welfare
W = $200 = profit ($200) + CS ($0)
is same under both pricing systems where output stays the same

31. Profit from 10 College Students
Table 12.1b
Pricing
Profit from 10 College Students
Profit from 5 Seniors
Total Profit
Uniform, $5
$50
$25
$75
Uniform, $10
$100 $0
Price discriminate
$125

32. Answer: Panel b
welfare is greater with perfect price discrimination where output increases
if theater sets single price of $10
only college students attend and have CS = 0
 = $100
W = $100
if it perfectly price discriminates:
CS = 0
 =$125
W = $125

33. Quantity discrimination
firm does not know which customers have highest reservation prices
firm might know most customers are willing to pay more for first unit (demand slopes down)
firm varies price each customer pays with number of units customer buys
price varies only with quantity: all customers pay the same price for a given quantity
note: not all quantity discounts are a form of price discrimination

34. Utility block pricing
public utility (electricity, water, gas…) charges
one price for the first few units (a block) of usage
different price for subsequent blocks
both declining-block and increasing-block pricing are common

35. Figure 12.3 Quantity Discriminationp 1
, $ per unit 30 50 70 90 Q
, Units per day 20 40 m
(a) Quantity Discrimination
Demand A =
$200 C B
$1,200 D p 2
, $ per unit 30 60 90 Q
, Units per day m
(b) Single-Price Monopoly
Demand F =
$900 G
$450 MR E

36. Multimarket price discrimination
firm knows only which groups of customers are likely to have higher reservation prices than others
firm divides potential customers into two or more groups
firms set a different price for each group

37. Theater
senior citizens pay a lower price than younger adults at movie theaters
by admitting people as soon as they demonstrate their age and buy tickets, theater prevents resales

38. International price discrimination: Cars
even including shipping and customs, European price for BMW 750IL
price is 13.6% more from an American firm than imported from Europe

39. International price discrimination: Software
Australia's Prices Surveillance Agency criticized American software industry for charging Australians 49% more than Americans,
then, Agency called for an end to import restrictions so that Australian retailers could import software directly

40. Price discriminating: 2 groups
marginal cost = m
monopoly charges Group i members pi for Qi units
profit from Group i is
i= piQi – mQi

41. To maximize total profit
monopoly sets its quantities so that marginal revenue for each group i, MRi, equals common marginal cost, m:
MR1 = m = MR2.
example: Sony’s Aibo robot dog

42. Figure 12.4 Multimarket Pricing of Aibo
(a) Japan
(b) United States p
, $ per unit p
, $ per unit J US
4,500
3,500 CS US CS p
= 2,500 J US p
= 2,000 J D J D US p p US J
DWL J
DWL US
500 M C
500 M C MR J MR US Q =
3,000
7,000 Q
= 2,000
4,500 J US Q
, Units per year Q
, Units per year J US

43. Profit-maximizing condition
MRi = pi(1 + 1/i), so
MR1=p1(1 + 1/1) = m = p2(1 + 1/2) = MR2

44. Solved problem monopoly sells in two markets
constant elasticity of demand is
1 = -2 in first market
2 = -4 in second market
MC = $1
resales are impossible
what prices should monopoly charge?

45. Answer 
p1 = 1/(1 – ½) = 2
p2 = 1/(1 – ¼) = 4/3
p1/p2 = 2/(4/3) = 1.5

46. Coca-Cola Version 1
a two-liter bottle of Coke costs 50% more in the U.K. than in EU nations (SF Chronicle, May 17, 2000: D2)
if Coke’s marginal cost is the same for all European nations, how does the demand in the U.K. differ from that in the EU?

47. Answer
pUK/pEU = 1.5
an example that is consistent with this ratio is UK = - 2 and EU = -4
generally:
or 1.5EU - UK = 0.5 UK EU

48. Generics and brand-name loyalty
Why do prices of some brand-name pharmaceutical drugs rise when equivalent, generic brands enter the market?

49. Entry of generics
generics enter when patent for profitable drug expires
generics: 40% of U.S. pharmaceutical sales by volume
name-brand drugs with sales of about $20 billion went off patent by 1997
most states allow/require pharmacist to switch prescription from more expensive brand-name product to generic unless doctor or patient object

50. Price effects
18 major orally-administered drug products that faced generic competition
on average for each drug, 17 generic brands entered and captured 35% of total sales in first year
price effects
brand-name drug prices rose an average of 7%
but average market price fell over 10%
because generic price was only 46% of brand-name price

51. Explanation customers with different demand elasticities
some are price sensitive: willingly switch to less expensive generic drugs
others are unwilling to change brands
AARP survey found that people 65 and older are 15% less likely than people 45 to 64 to request generic versions of a drug from their doctor or pharmacist
introduction of generics makes demand facing brand-name drug less elastic

52. Identifying an individual’s group
identify using observable characteristics of consumers price elasticities
identify consumers based on their actions: consumers self-select into a group

53. Why firms use self-identification
each price discrimination method requires that, to receive a discount, consumers incur some cost, such as their time
otherwise, all consumers would get a discount
by spending extra time to obtain a discount, price-sensitive consumers differentiate themselves from others

54. Getting consumers to identify themselves: Coupons
self-selection: people who spend their time clipping coupons buy goods at lower prices than those who value their time more
coupon-using consumers paid $24 billion less than other consumers in the first half of 1990s

55. Airline tickets and hotel rooms
self-selection (business vs. vacation travelers): cheap fares require advanced purchase and staying over a Saturday night
Sheraton and other hotel chains offer discounts for rooms booked 14 days in advance for the same reason

56. Reverse Auctions
priceline.com uses a name-your-own-price or reverse-auction to identify price sensitive customers
a customer enters a relatively low price bid for a good or service, such as airline tickets
merchants decide whether to accept that bid or not

57. Why priceline works
to keep their less price-sensitive customers from using this method, airlines force successful Priceline bidders to be flexible:
to fly at off hours
to make one or more connection
to accept any type of aircraft
when bidding on groceries, a customer must list “two or more brands you like.”
as Jay Walker, Priceline’s founder said, “The manufacturers would rather not give you a discount, of course, but if you prove that you’re willing to switch brands, they’re willing to pay to keep you.”

58. Welfare effects of multimarket price discrimination
multimarket price discrimination results in inefficient production and consumption
welfare under multimarket price discrimination is lower than under competition or perfect price discrimination
welfare may be lower or higher with multimarket price discrimination than with a single-price monopoly

59. Gray markets
producers of recordings, books, sunglasses, and shampoo, price discriminate by selling these goods for higher prices in U.S. than in foreign markets
if the price differential is great enough, some goods are reimported into U.S. and sold in a $130 billion-a-year "gray market" by discounters (Costco, Target, Wal-Mart)

60. Gray markets (cont.) 1995 federal court decision:
copyright owners has exclusive right to control marketing
can prevent reimportation
1998 Supreme Court decision reversed:
discount retailers had the legal right to sell copyrighted U.S. goods in U.S.
once sold, "lawfully made" copies can be resold without the permission of copyright holder
reduces firms ability to price discriminate

61. Other forms of nonlinear pricing
two-part tariffs
tie-in sales
both are second-degree price discrimination schemes where the average price per unit varies with the number of units consumers buy

62. Two-part tariff firm charges a consumer
lump-sum fee (first tariff) for right to buy any units
constant price (second tariff) on each unit purchased
because of lump-sum fee, consumers pay more, the fewer units they buy

63. Two-part tariff examples
telephone service: monthly connection fee, price per minute of use
car rental firms: charge per-day, price per mile

64. Personal seat license
Carolina Panthers introduced the PSL in 1993, and at least 11 NFL teams used a PSL by 2002
over $700 million has been raised by the PSL portion of this two-part tariff
Raiders football season tickets: “personal seat license” at $250-$4,000 (right to buy season tickets for next 11 years), tickets $40-$60 each

65. Two-part tariff with identical consumers
monopoly that knows its customers' demand curve can set a two-part tariff that has same properties as perfect-price-discriminating equilibrium

66. Two-part tariff with nonidentical consumers
suppose two customers - Consumer 1 and Consumer 2 - with demand curves, D1 and D2
consider two cases, monopoly
knows customers’ demand curves and can charge them different prices
cannot distinguish between types of customers or cannot charge consumers different prices

67. Can distinguish/discriminate
monopoly knows customers’ demand curves; can charge them different prices
monopoly charges each customer p = MC = m = $10/unit
thus, makes no profit per unit but sells number of units that maximizes potential CS
monopoly sets lump-sum fees = potential CS
A1 + B1 + C1 = $2,450 to Consumer 1
A2 + B2 + C2 = $4,050 to Consumer 2
monopoly's total profit= $6,500

68. Figure Two-Part Tariff with Identical Consumers
, $ per unit 80 D 1 A =
$1,800 1 C =
$50 20 1 B =
$600 1 10 m 60 70 80 q
, Units per day 1

69. Cannot distinguish/discriminate
monopoly cannot distinguish between types of customers or cannot charge them different prices
monopoly has to charge each consumer the same lump-sum fee and same p
due to legal restrictions, telephone company charges all residential customers same monthly fee and same fee per call, even though company knows that consumers' demands vary

70. Figure 12.5 Two-Part Tariff
, $ per unit q 2
, Units per day 90
100 80 D2 20 10 m
(b) Consumer 2 B =
$800 C
$50 A
$3,200
(a) Consumer 1 p
, $ per unit
100 80 D1 A =
$1,800 1 C =
$50 20 1 B =
$600 1 10 m 60 70 80 q
, Units per day 1

71. Monopoly doesn’t capture all CS
monopoly charges lump-sum fee equal to potential CS1 or CS2
because CS2 > CS1 both customers buy if lump-sum fee = CS1
Consumer 2 buys if monopoly charges lump-sum fee = CS2
in Figure 12.5, monopoly maximizes its profit by setting lower lump-sum fee and charging p = $20 > MC

72. Why is price > marginal cost?
by raising its price, monopoly earns more per unit from both types of customers but lowers its customers’ potential CS
if monopoly can capture each customer's potential CS by charging different lump-sum fees, it sets p = MC

73. Tie-in sales
customers can buy one product only if they purchase another product as well
most tie-in sales increase efficiency by lowering transaction costs

74. 2 forms of tie-in sales
requirements tie-in sale: customers who buy one product from a firm must purchase all units of another product from that firm (copiers/toner or service)
bundling (or a package tie-in sale): two goods are combined so that customers cannot buy either good separately (shoes/shoelaces)

75. Requirement tie-in sales
firm cannot tell which customers are going to use its product most (highest willing to pay)
firms uses requirement tie-in sale to identify heavy users

76. IBM requirement tie
1930s: IBM produced card punch machines, sorters, and tabulating machines that computed using punched cards
IBM leased (rather than sold) punch machines; lease would terminate if customer used non-IBM card
by leasing, IBM avoided resale problems and forced customers to buy cards from it

77. Bundling
bundling allows firms that can't directly price discriminate to charge customers different prices
profitability of bundling depends on customers’ tastes and ability to prevent resales

78. Selling Raiders' season tickets
suppose stadium can hold all potential customers, so MC = 0 for selling one more ticket
should Raiders bundle tickets for preseason (“exhibition”) and regular-season games, or sell separately?

79. Table 12.3 Bundling of Tickets to Football Games

80. When bundling increases profit
bundling likely to increase profit if consumers' demands are
negatively correlated:
consumers who value one good much more than other customers value other good less
here, bundling pays only if customers willing to pay relatively more for regular-season tickets are not willing to pay as much as others for preseason tickets and vice versa

81. Supreme Court on tie-in sales
Kodak was prohibited by the Supreme Court from using certain tie-in sales in 1992
Kodak sells photocopiers and Kodak parts and service to its customers
Kodak refused to supply some parts to independent repair firms - effectively forcing customers to buy those parts and associated service from Kodak

82. Charge and response
company was charged with illegally tying sale of its photocopiers with its parts and service
Kodak argued that
case should be dismissed because both sides agreed Kodak faced substantial competition in initial sale of photocopiers
customers would not buy from Kodak if they knew that they would be overcharged on repair parts and service
because Kodak didn't have market power in copier market, it couldn't price discriminate or extend its market power to another market

83. Supreme Court rejects Kodak
consumers may be uninformed (can’t forecast repair cost)
even if Kodak lacks market power in photocopiers, it’s a monopoly supplier of its unique repair parts
factual investigation needed to determine if consumers are ignorant and have to be protected
(Court did not explain consumer benefit if Kodak forced to sell repair parts to independent repair shops at prices set by Kodak)

84. 1. Why and how firms price discriminate
to successfully price discriminate a firm needs
market power
to know which customers will pay more for each unit of output
to prevent resales
firm earns a higher profit from price discrimination than uniform pricing because it
captures some or all of the CS of customers who are willing to pay more than uniform price
sells to some people who won’t buy at uniform price

85. 2. Perfect price discrimination
to perfectly price discriminate, firm must know maximum amount each customer is willing to pay for each unit of output.
perfectly price discriminating firm captures all potential consumer surplus
sells efficient (competitive) level of output
compared to competition
welfare is same
consumers are worse off
firms are better off

86. 3. Quantity discrimination
some firms charge customers different prices depending on how many units they purchase
doing so raises their profits

87. 4. Multimarket price discrimination
firm does not have enough information to perfectly price discriminate but knows relative elasticities of demand of groups of customers
firm charges each group a price in proportion to its elasticity of demand
welfare under multimarket price discrimination is
< under competition/perfect price discrimination
> or < under single-price monopoly

88. 5. Two-part tariffs
by charging consumers a fee for the right to buy and a price per unit, firms may earn higher profits than from charging only for each unit sold
if a firm knows demand curves of its customers, it can use two-part tariffs (instead of perfectly price discriminating) to capture all consumer surplus

89. 6. Tie-in sales
firm may increase its profit by using a tie-in sale: customers can buy one product only if they also purchase another one
requirement tie-in sale: customers who buy one good must make all of their purchases of another good or service from that firm
bundling (package tie-in sale): firm sells only a bundle of two goods together
prices differ across customers under both types of tie-in sales

90. Docking Their Pay 2002 dispute between
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
shipping companies, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association
led to the closure of 29 west coast ports for 12 days and significant damage to U.S. and foreign economies
these docks handle about $300 billion worth of goods per year

91. Lockout shippers locked out 10,500 union workers
lockout: an action by the employers that causes a work stoppage similar to what would happen if the union called a strike

92. Damages
by one estimate, the shutdown inflicted up to $2 billion a day in damages of the U.S. economy
revenues fell 80% at West Coast Trucking
one of Hawaii’s largest moving companies declared bankruptcy as a consequence
Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines said that the shutdown cost it $1 million a day
Had the shutdown lasted longer, vast amounts of food and other perishables waiting to be shipped would have spoiled.

93. Why these events were triggered by the expiration of a union contract
dispute had more to do with employment issues than wages

94. Background
number of dock workers has shrunk over the years as firms have used automation to become more efficient
10,500 registered union workers averaged at least $80,000 (some estimates set the figure at $100,000) a year with benefits and other perks worth about $42,000 under the previous contract

95. Offer Pacific Maritime Association negotiators had offered
$1 billion worth of new pension benefits—lifetime benefits of $50,000 a year
higher salaries of $114,500 a year for longshore workers and $137,500 for marine clerks
health care plan with no deductibles

96. Union Concerns use of new technologies
potential loss of 400 longshore positions
wanted guarantees that new clerical positions would be filled by their union members

97. Take-it-or-leave it
Traditionally, longshore unions offered employers a take-it-or-leave-it choice:
union specified both a wage and a minimum number of hours of work that the employers had to provide
1975 U.S. Department of Labor study found 2/3 of transportation union contracts (excluding railroads and airplanes) had wage-employment compared to only 11% of union contracts in all industries

98. Task
Compare equilibrium where a union specifies both wages and hours of work to the perfect price discrimination equilibrium