An Empirical Analysis of Competitive Nonlinear Pricing

Download or read book An Empirical Analysis of Competitive Nonlinear Pricing written by Gaurab Aryal and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We estimate a model of competitive nonlinear pricing with multidimensional preference heterogeneity using individual level data on advertisements bought by local businesses (e.g., doctors, electricians) from two Yellow Page Directories in one U.S. city-market. Variation in individual choices and payments allow us to identify the joint density of preferences, marginal costs of publishing and common utility parameters. Our estimates suggest substantial welfare loss due to asymmetric information. Comparing duopoly outcomes with (counterfactual) monopoly outcomes, we find that with less competition (i) producer surplus increases substantially; (ii) more “low-type” consumers are excluded; (iii) product variety increases, but benefits accrue only to the “high-type” consumers; (iv) total consumer surplus decreases; (v) but its distribution, across consumers, does not change.