An important issue in economics is how market structure affects prices.While the standard view is that competition lowers prices, Chen andRiordan (2006) argued that with product differentiation it is notexceptional for prices to be higher under duopoly than monopoly. Thispaper empirically...

This paper analyzes the welfare effects of monopoly differential pricing in the important but largely neglected case where marginal costs of service differ across consumer groups. Compared to uniform pricing, cost-based differential pricing generally raises total welfare. Although total output...

This paper investigates discount pricing, the common marketing practice whereby a price is listed as a discount from an earlier, or regular, price.  We discuss two reasons why a discounted price - as opposed to a mearly low price - can make a rational consumer more willing to purchase the...

In a discrete choice model of product differentiation, the symmetric duopoly price may be lower than, equal to, or higher than the single-product monopoly price. Whereas the market share effect encourages a duopolist to charge less than the monopoly price because a duopolist serves fewer...

Firms simultaneously set prices in a homogeneous-product market where uninformed consumers search for price information. Some uninformed consumers are local searchers who visit only one seller, possibly due to high search costs or bounded rationality; whereas others search sequentially with an...

Oligopoly price discrimination in the retail market prevents a manufacturer from inducing optimal retail margins through any wholesale price. This motivates the manufacturer to impose resale price maintenance. In a model of third-degree price discrimination by rival retailers, a retail price...

This study examines the pricing behavior of online retailers (e-tailers) in Chinese e-commerce markets. Descriptive statistics indicate that prices have not converged in China's e-commerce markets and that there is relatively more price variation in markets for cosmetics, compact discs, gifts...