Does Pricing of Internet Usage Steer Consumers or Meter Usage? Evidence from a Pricing Experiment
基于一家互联网服务提供商的定价实验数据，研究使用量定价对家庭互联网和电视订阅、使用量及公司收入的影响，发现该政策主要计量高需求家庭的使用量而非引导其转向电视。
Abstract Competition authorities have expressed concern that firms selling broadband internet and TV subscriptions may employ usage-based pricing (UBP) of internet to steer consumers toward TV over streaming video. We study this issue with household-level panel data from an internet service provider's UBP experiment, capturing the prices' effects on internet and TV subscriptions, internet usage, and firm revenue. We find that this specific UBP policy largely served to meter internet usage by high-demand households rather than steer them toward TV. Households' payments increased due to usage-related overage charges and internet subscription upgrades to avoid overages. Some households avoided internet-related payments by reducing usage rather than adding TV subscriptions.