Evaluating Welfare with Nonlinear Prices

Evaluating Welfare with Nonlinear Prices
Author: Peter Clemens Reiss
Publisher:
Total Pages: 28
Release: 2006
Genre: Consumer protection
ISBN:

This paper examines how to evaluate consumer welfare when consumers face nonlinear prices. This problem arises in many settings, such as devising optimal pricing strategies for firms, assessing how price discrimination affects consumers, and evaluating the efficiency costs of many transfer programs in the public sector. We extend prior methods to accommodate a broad range of modern pricing practices, including menus of pricing plans. This analysis yields a simpler and more general technique for evaluating exact consumer surplus changes in settings where consumers face nonlinear prices. We illustrate our method using recent changes in mobile phone service plans.

Regulation and Markets

Regulation and Markets
Author: Daniel F. Spulber
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 720
Release: 1989
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262192750

Regulation and Markets provides the up to date, integrated analysis of regulatory policies and the administrative process that is needed in today's field of regulation economics. The book takes a modern perspective, using the tools of industrial organization and game theory. It is the only unified treatment of the field and combines theoretical models with consideration of public policy issues in the areas of antitrust, price regulation, environmental regulation, product quality, and workplace safety. The discussion considers both the welfare effects of regulation and the institutional aspects of the administrative regulatory process. Developments in the fields of law and political science have been integrated in a rigorous manner into the economic framework.Sections of the book address administrative process and market allocation, competition and pricing under increasing returns to scale, administrative regulation of markets, and antitrust enforcement. The conclusion evaluates regulatory policy and deregulation. Extensive literature citations throughout enhance the books value as a reference.

Nonlinear Pricing

Nonlinear Pricing
Author: Robert B. Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 446
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780195115826

What do phone rates, frequent flyer programs, and railroad tariffs all have in common? They are all examples of nonlinear pricing. Pricing is nonlinear when it is not strictly proportional to the quantity purchased. The Electric Power Research Institute has commissioned Robert Wilson to review the various facets of nonlinear pricing. The work starts with a general non-mathematical discussion, followed by a more technical presentation intended for readers with a fairly advanced background. Thorough and detailed, this study has ample examples of case studies from a variety of industries.

The Theory of the Firm

The Theory of the Firm
Author: Daniel F. Spulber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2009-04-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521517389

The Theory of the Firm presents an innovative general analysis of the economics of the firm.

The Welfare Performance of Sequential Pricing Mechanisms

The Welfare Performance of Sequential Pricing Mechanisms
Author: Eugenio J. Miravete
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre:
ISBN:

Consumers are commonly required to subscribe to particular tariff options before uncertainty regarding their future purchases gets resolved. Since the general comparison of welfare performance of different pricing mechanisms is ambiguous, this article empirically evaluates the expected welfare associated with standard nonlinear pricing and optional tariffs by using information directly linked to the type of individual consumers. Results show that tariffs composed of nonlinear options do not necessarily outperform simpler pricing strategies in terms of expected profits. Furthermore, evidence suggests that a menu of optional two-part tariffs dominates any other pricing strategy from an expected welfare perspective.

Advertising Media Planning, Optimal Pricing, and Welfare

Advertising Media Planning, Optimal Pricing, and Welfare
Author: Lola Esteban
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper analyzes optimal media planning strategies in a pricing-advertising competition model where firms can use mass and specialized advertising. We find that although targeted advertising avoids the wasting of ads, firms might find it optimal to mix specialized advertising with the mass media. We also show that the characteristics of the specialized media available crucially affect the outcome of price competition between firms, which can range from a full fragmentation of the market into local monopolies to lower average prices (compared to the case where firms had only mass advertising available). Regarding welfare, we prove that although the use of specialized advertising can lower consumer surplus and drive a fragment of consumers out of the market, this advertising technology is welfare-improving, and can be Pareto superior.