Unit 4 PC Slides (2022 02 25) Short+ (3)
Unit 4 PC Slides (2022 02 25) Short+ (3)
[GADE AR]
What’s arbitrage?
◦ Arbitrage is the process of buying a good in one market at a low price and then selling it
in another market at a higher price. To benefit from price differences across markets.
If arbitrage is feasible, price will tend to converge towards a common and single price (in
theory).
Academic year 2022 - 2023 MICROECONOMICS UNIT 4 PRICING WITH MARKET POWER 4
The intuition behind Price Discrimination (2/3)
Price
Consumer
surplus Monopolists would be
happy to capture part
Monopoly Deadweight
of the deadweight loss
price loss
as well as the remaining
Profit
Marginal cost of the consumer surplus
if they could.
Marginal Demand
revenue
① Cinema tickets
Demand
PRICE $
80 € Monopoly profits
before price
70 €
Because the monopolist charges each consumer her discrimination
MR
reservation price, it is profitable to expand output to Q**. 60 €
P* = 55
50 €
When only a single price, P*, is charged, the firm’s variable 40 €
profit is the area in yellow. D=AR
30 €
MC
With perfect price discrimination, this profit expands to 20 €
the area between the demand curve and the marginal cost 10 €
curve. 0€
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
In practice, it is not simple to apply first degree PD. Why? Q* =35 Q** =70
UNITS sold
Consumers’ actions help to include them in different categories (traceability, e.g. fidelity cards)
depending on:
Consumption habits (ecommerce shopping, frequency of sales purchasing, …)
Location
Age or other consumer characteristics
Assuming that the market is divided in two groups, optimum outputs by group are
determined as follows. Let P1 be the price charged to the first group of consumers,
P2 the price charged to the second group, and C(QT) the total cost of producing
output QTotal = Q1 + Q2. Total profit is then
ΔΠ Δ(P 1Q1) ΔC 0 ΔΠ Δ( P 2 Q 2) ΔC
Π P 1Q1 P 2Q 2 C(QT ) = − =0
ΔQ1 ΔQ1 ΔQ1 ΔQ 2 ΔQ 2 ΔQ 2
MC = $4 20
18 (6,5, 17)
16
14
The aggregated demand faced by the monopolist 12
is 10
MR2
D1+D2
8
6
D1+D2 = Qus + Q = 9 – P/4
EU if $36 < P < $24 4
MR1
2
Q
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
At these prices, only the US market is active -2
-4 MR1+MR2
-6 q
D1+D2 = Qus + Q = 15 – P/2 if
EU P < $24
2022 - 2023 MICROECONOMICS UNIT 4 PRICING WITH MARKET POWER 15
CASE: With price discrimination
38 40
36 MONOPOLIST - US MARKET 38 MONOPOLIST - EU MARKET
34 PRICE DISCRIMINATION 36
PRICE DISCRIMINATION
Qus = 4 Pus = 20
32 34
30 32
30
28
26 28 Q EU = 2,5 Peu = 14
D1 26
24
22 24
D2
20
18
22
20 Total profits =
16 18
16
(20 – 4)x4 + (14 – 4)x2.5 = $89
14
12
14
12
million
10
10
8
8
6 MC MR2
6
4 4
2 MR1
Q 2 Q
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
-2 -2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
-4 -4
-6 q -6 q
peak-load pricing Practice of charging higher prices during peak periods when
capacity constraints cause marginal costs to be high.
- Two-Part Tariffs
- Bundling
Total profit π is the sum of the profit from the entry fee π a and the profit
from sales πs. Both πa and πs depend on T, the entry fee. Therefore
π = πa + πs = n(T)T + (P − MC)Q(n)
where n is the number of entrants, which depends on the entry fee T, and
Q is the rate of sales, which is greater the larger is n.
Today, most consumers use their phone not just to make or receive
calls but also to surf the Web, read email, and so on. They separate
themselves into groups based on their expected data usage, with
each group choosing a different plan.
Cellular providers have learned that the most profitable way to price
their service is to combine price discrimination with a two-part tariff.
1
All plans include 2GB unlimited data
EXAMPLE (3 of 4) - PRICING CELLULAR PHONE
SERVICE
TABLE 11.3: CELLULAR DATA PLANS (2016)
MONTHLY ACCESS
DATA USAGE MONTHLY PRICE CHARGE OVERAGE FEE
C. AT&T C. AT&T C. AT&T C. AT&T
2GB $30 $25 $15/GB
5GB $50 $25 $15/GB
15GB $100 $15 $15/GB
20GB $140 $15 $15/GB
25GB $175 $15 $15/GB
30GB $225 $15 $15/GB
D. VODAPHONE D. VODAPHONE
D. VODAPHONE (U.K)2 D. VODAPHONE (U.K)2
(U.K)2 (U.K)2
3GB £37 None £6.50/250MB
6GB £42 None £6.50/250MB
12GB £47 None £6.50/250MB
24GB £52 None £6.50/250MB
30GB £58 None £6.50/250MB
2
£1 = $1.29 (as of July 2016
EXAMPLE (4 of 4) - PRICING CELLULAR PHONE
SERVICE
TABLE 11.3: CELLULAR DATA PLANS (2016)
MONTHLY ACCESS
DATA USAGE MONTHLY PRICE CHARGE OVERAGE FEE
E. VODAPHONE E. VODAPHONE E. VODAPHONE E. VODAPHONE
(AUSTRALIA) (AUSTRALIA) (AUSTRALIA) (AUSTRALIA)
F. CHINA
F. CHINA UNICOM F. CHINA UNICOM F. CHINA UNICOM
UNICOM
The demands are negatively correlated—the customer willing to pay the most for Wind is willing
to pay the least for Gertie.
Suppose demands were positively correlated—that is, Theater A would pay more for both films:
Blank Cell GONE WITH THE WIND GETTING GERTIE’S GARTER
Theater A $12,000 $4000
Theater B $10,000 $3000
If we bundled the films, the maximum price that could be charged for the package is $13,000,
yielding a total revenue of $26,000, the same as by renting the films separately.
To see how a film company can use customer heterogeneity to its advantage, suppose that
there are two movie theaters and that their reservation prices for our two films are as follows:
Blank Cell GONE WITH THE WIND GETTING GERTIE’S GARTER
Theater A $12,000 $3000
Theater B $10,000 $4000
If the films are rented separately, the maximum price that could be charged for Wind is $10,000
because charging more would exclude Theater B. Similarly, the maximum price that could be
charged for Gertie is $3000.
But suppose the films are bundled. Theater A values the pair of films at $15,000 ($12,000 +
$3000), and Theater B values the pair at $14,000 ($10,000 + $4000). Therefore, we can charge
each theater $14,000 for the pair of films and earn a total revenue of $28,000.
RESERVATION PRICES
RESERVATION PRICES
MOVIE EXAMPLE
One of the main benefits of tying is that it often allows a firm to meter demand
and thereby practice price discrimination more effectively.
Tying can have other uses. An important one is to protect customer goodwill
connected with a brand name.
This is why franchises are often required to purchase inputs from the franchiser.
MICROECONOMICS UNIT 4 PRICING WITH MARKET POWER
2022 - 2023 40
RESERVE SLIDES
mixed bundling Selling two or more goods both as a package and individually.
pure bundling Selling products only as a package.
With positive marginal costs, mixed bundling may be more profitable than pure
bundling.
Consumer A has a reservation price for good 1 that is below marginal cost c1,
and consumer D has a reservation price for good 2 that is below marginal cost
c2.
With mixed bundling, consumer A is induced to buy only good 2, and consumer
D is induced to buy only good 1, thus reducing the firm’s cost.
As we should expect, pure bundling is better than selling the goods separately because consumers’ demands
are negatively correlated. But what about mixed bundling?
If marginal costs are zero, and if consumers’ demands are not perfectly
negatively correlated, mixed bundling is still more profitable than pure bundling.
In this example, consumers B and C are willing to pay $20 more for the bundle
than are consumers A and D.
With pure bundling, the price of the bundle is $100. With mixed bundling, the
price of the bundle can be increased to $120 and consumers A and D can still be
charged $90 for a single good.
A company could first choose a price for the bundle, PB, such that
a diagonal line connecting these prices passes roughly midway
through the dots.
Given P1, P2, and PB, profits can be calculated for this sample of
consumers. Managers can then raise or lower P1, P2 , and PB and
see whether the new pricing leads to higher profits. This
procedure is repeated until total profit is roughly maximized.
EXAMPLE
THE COMPLETE DINNER VERSUS À LA CARTE: A RESTAURANT PRICING PROBLEM
For a restaurant, mixed bundling means offering both complete dinners (the
appetizer, main course, and dessert come as a package) and an à la carte
menu (the customer buys the appetizer, main course, and dessert separately).
At the same time, the complete dinner retains those customers who have
lower variations in their reservation prices for different dishes (e.g., customers
who attach moderate values to both appetizers and desserts).
UNITED STATES
MEAL (INCLUDES UNBUNDLED PRICE OF
INDIVIDUAL ITEM (MASSACHUSETTS)
PRICE SODA AND FRIES) PRICE BUNDLE SAVINGS
CHINA
MEAL
(BEIJING) PRICE
(INCLUDES OF
INDIVIDUAL SODA AND UNBUNDLE BUNDL SAVING
ITEM PRICE* FRIES) D PRICE E S
Big Mac 17 RMB Big Mac 33 RMB 20 RMB 13 RMB
German Sausage German
Double Beef 20 RMB Sausage Double 36 RMB 32 RMB 4 RMB
Burger Beef Burger
Duck Burger 23 RMB Duck Burger 39 RMB 31 RMB 8 RMB
Blank
French Fries 7 RMB Blank Cell Blank Cell Blank Cell
Cell
Blank
Drink 9 RMB Blank Cell Blank Cell Blank Cell
Cell
*1 RMB =
$0.15