Moral Hazard and Customer Loyalty Programs
用理论模型解释常旅客计划如何利用雇主与员工之间的代理关系，导致机票价格上涨但航空公司利润可能下降。
Frequent-flier plans (FFPs) may be the most famous of customer loyalty programs, and there are similar schemes in other industries. We present a theory that models FFPs as efforts to exploit the agency relationship between employers (who pay for tickets) and employees (who book travel). FFPs “bribe” employees to book flights at higher prices. While a single airline offering an FFP has an advantage, competing FFPs can result in lower profits for airlines even while ticket prices rise. Thus, in contrast to switching-cost treatments of FFPs, we may observe prices and profits moving in opposite directions.