Comparing Mobile Communication Service Prices Among Providers: A Hedonic Approach

The present article proposes a new approach to compare mobile communication service prices among different communications service providers. To this end, a hedonic model based on monthly phone bills is employed that relates billed amounts and the quantities of consumed mobile communication services. A linear hedonic regression model is separately estimated for each provider and then used to estimate prices. Laspeyres, Paasche, and Fisher double-imputed price indices are then used to compare prices across communications service providers on an aggregate level. The sensitivity of these indices in relation to the estimated hedonic functions is investigated using a generalized additive model.