1. Advanced Pricing Techniques
BEC 30325
Managerial Economics
Advanced Pricing Techniques

2. Advanced Pricing Techniques
Price discrimination
Multiple products
Cost-plus pricing

3. Capturing Consumer Surplus
Uniform pricing
Charging the same price for every unit of the product
Price discrimination
More profitable alternative to uniform pricing
Market conditions must allow this practice to be profitably executed
Technique of charging different prices for the same product
Used to capture consumer surplus (turning consumer surplus into profit)

4. The Trouble with Uniform Pricing

5. Price Discrimination
Exists when the price-to-marginal cost ratio differs between two products:

6. Price Discrimination
Three conditions necessary to practice price discrimination profitably:
Firm must possess some degree of market power
A cost-effective means of preventing resale between lower- and higher-price buyers (consumer arbitrage) must be implemented
Price elasticities must differ between individual buyers or groups of buyers

7. First-Degree (Perfect) Price Discrimination
Every unit is sold for the maximum price each consumer is willing to pay
Allows the firm to capture entire consumer surplus
Difficulties
Requires precise knowledge about every buyer’s demand for the good
Seller must negotiate a different price for every unit sold to every buyer

8. First-Degree (Perfect) Price Discrimination

9. Second-Degree Price Discrimination
Lower prices are offered for larger quantities and buyers can self-select the price by choosing how much to buy
When the same consumer buys more than one unit of a good or service at a time, the marginal value placed on additional units declines as more units are consumed

10. Second-Degree Price Discrimination
Two-part pricing
Charges buyers a fixed access charge (A) to purchase as many units as they wish for a constant fee (f) per unit
Total expenditure (TE) for q units is:

11. Second-Degree Price Discrimination
When consumers have identical demands, entire consumer surplus can be captured by:
Setting f = MC
Setting A = consumer surplus (CS)
Optimal usage fee when two groups of buyers have identical demands is the level for which MRf = MCf

12. Inverse Demand Curve for Each of 100 Identical Senior Golfers

13. Demand at Northvale Golf Club

14. Second-Degree Price Discrimination
Declining block pricing
Offers quantity discounts over successive discrete blocks of quantities purchased

15. Block Pricing with Five Blocks

16. Third-Degree Price Discrimination
If a firm sells in two markets, 1 & 2
Allocate output (sales) so MR1 = MR2
Optimal total output is that for which MRT = MC
For profit-maximization, allocate sales of total output so that
MRT = MC = MR1 = MR2

17. Third-Degree Price Discrimination
Equal-marginal-revenue principle
Allocating output (sales) so MR1 = MR2 which will maximize total revenue for the firm (TR1 + TR2)
More elastic market gets lower price
Less elastic market gets higher price

18. Allocating Sales Between Markets

19. Constructing the Marginal Revenue Curve

20. Profit-Maximization Under Third-Degree Price Discrimination

21. Multiple Products Related in consumption MRX = MCX and MRY = MCY
For two products, X & Y, produce & sell levels of output for which
MRX = MCX and MRY = MCY
MRX is a function not only of QX but also of QY (as is MRY) -- conditions must be satisfied simultaneously

22. Multiple Products Related in production as substitutes MRPX = MRPY
For two products, X & Y, allocate production facility so that
MRPX = MRPY
Optimal level of facility usage in the long run is where MRPT = MC
For profit-maximization:
MRPT = MC = MRPX = MRPY

23. Multiple Products Related in production as complements MRJ = MC
To maximize profit, set joint marginal revenue equal to marginal cost:
MRJ = MC
If profit-maximizing level of joint production exceeds output where MRJ kinks, units beyond zero MR are disposed of rather than sold
Profit-maximizing prices are found using demand functions for the two goods

24. Profit-Maximizing Allocation of Production Facilities

25. Profit-Maximization with Joint Products

26. Cost-Plus Pricing
Common technique for pricing when firms do not wish to estimate demand & cost conditions to apply the MR = MC rule for profit-maximization
Price charged represents a markup (margin) over average cost:
P = (1 + m)ATC
Where m is the markup on unit cost

27. Cost-Plus Pricing Does not generally produce profit-maximizing price
Fails to incorporate information on demand & marginal revenue
Uses average, not marginal, cost

28. Practical Problems with Cost-Plus Pricing