Optimal Refund Mechanism With Consumer Learning
研究了当买家不了解产品价值、随时间逐步学习时，卖家如何设计最优退款机制，发现最优方案要么低价无退货、要么高价免费退货，且免费退货仅对中等先验信念最优。
ABSTRACT This article studies the optimal refund mechanism when an uninformed buyer learns about their valuation over time. We consider various refund mechanisms including simple return policies (no returns or free returns), and stochastic return policies, which allow the buyer to keep the product with some probability upon receiving a refund. We show that the optimal refund mechanism is deterministic and takes a simple form: either the seller deters buyer learning by offering a low price without returns, or encourages maximal learning by setting a high price with free returns. Interestingly, free returns are optimal only for intermediate prior beliefs.