Price Discrimination and Retail Configuration
利用加油站微观数据,验证多厂商市场中基于支付意愿的价格歧视存在,并排除成本驱动竞争差异和高峰负荷定价的解释,发现零售价格歧视使全服务汽油均价每加仑至少高出9美分。
The hypothesis that price discrimination based on willingness-to-pay for quality can occur in multifirm markets is confirmed using microdata on gasoline retailing. A test that discriminates between price structures associated with discrimination and with cost-driven, competitive differentials is developed and implemented with controls for variation in outlet and market characteristics. A second test based on profitability variation rejects a competitive, peak-load pricing explanation for the observed price dispersion. The data suggest that price discrimination at the retail level adds at least nine cents a gallon to the average price of full-service gasoline. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.