IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecotra/v19y2019ic3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pricing of the long-distance bus service in Europe: The case of Flixbus

Author

Listed:
  • Gaggero, Alberto A.
  • Ogrzewalla, Lukas
  • Bubalo, Branko

Abstract

We study empirically the price dynamics in the long-distance bus market using posted fares by Flixbus, the market leader in Europe. We find that, at a given point in time, the fare increases with the number of sold seats. This result largely explains, why the lowest available fare increases as the departure date approaches. No evidence is found in favor of intertemporal price discrimination, probably because of low consumer-heterogeneity throughout the entire booking period that characterizes the long-distance bus market.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaggero, Alberto A. & Ogrzewalla, Lukas & Bubalo, Branko, 2019. "Pricing of the long-distance bus service in Europe: The case of Flixbus," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-1.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecotra:v:19:y:2019:i:c:3
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecotra.2019.100120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212012218300121
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecotra.2019.100120?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joanna Stavins, 2001. "Price Discrimination in the Airline Market: The Effect of Market Concentration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 200-202, February.
    2. Peter P. Belobaba, 1987. "Survey Paper---Airline Yield Management An Overview of Seat Inventory Control," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 63-73, May.
    3. Alderighi, Marco & Nicolini, Marcella & Piga, Claudio A., 2016. "Targeting leisure and business passengers with unsegmented pricing," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 502-512.
    4. Raymond Deneckere & James Peck, 2012. "Dynamic Competition With Random Demand and Costless Search: A Theory of Price Posting," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(3), pages 1185-1247, May.
    5. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2015. "Airline pricing under different market conditions: Evidence from European Low-Cost Carriers," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 152-163.
    6. Marc Möller & Makoto Watanabe, 2010. "Advance Purchase Discounts Versus Clearance Sales," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(547), pages 1125-1148, September.
    7. Alberto A. Gaggero & Claudio A. Piga, 2011. "Airline Market Power and Intertemporal Price Dispersion," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 552-577, December.
    8. Jeffrey I. McGill & Garrett J. van Ryzin, 1999. "Revenue Management: Research Overview and Prospects," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 233-256, May.
    9. Borenstein, Severin & Rose, Nancy L, 1994. "Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(4), pages 653-683, August.
    10. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2015. "A model of internal and external competition in a High Speed Rail line," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 178-187.
    11. Blayac, Thierry & Bougette, Patrice, 2017. "Should I go by bus? The liberalization of the long-distance bus industry in France," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 50-62.
    12. William J. Carroll & Richard C. Grimes, 1995. "Evolutionary Change in Product Management: Experiences in the Car Rental Industry," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 84-104, October.
    13. Fageda, Xavier & Sansano, Sergi, 2018. "Factors influencing prices and frequencies in the interurban bus market: Evidence from Europe," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 266-276.
    14. Brueckner, Jan K & Spiller, Pablo T, 1994. "Economies of Traffic Density in the Deregulated Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 379-415, October.
    15. Maddah, Bacel & Moussawi-Haidar, Lama & El-Taha, Muhammad & Rida, Hussein, 2010. "Dynamic cruise ship revenue management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 445-455, November.
    16. Knorr, Andreas & Lueg-Arndt, Andreas, 2016. "Intercity bus deregulation in Germany – Intramodal and intermodal effects after two years," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 323-329.
    17. Andrew Sweeting, 2012. "Dynamic Pricing Behavior in Perishable Goods Markets: Evidence from Secondary Markets for Major League Baseball Tickets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(6), pages 1133-1172.
    18. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    19. Marco Alderighi & Marcella Nicolini & Claudio A. Piga, 2015. "Combined Effects of Capacity and Time on Fares: Insights from the Yield Management of a Low-Cost Airline," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 900-915, October.
    20. Augustin, Katrin & Gerike, Regine & Martinez Sanchez, Manuel Josue & Ayala, Carolina, 2014. "Analysis of intercity bus markets on long distances in an established and a young market: The example of the U.S. and Germany," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 245-254.
    21. Bharill, Rohit & Rangaraj, Narayan, 2008. "Revenue management in railway operations: A study of the Rajdhani Express, Indian Railways," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1195-1207, November.
    22. James D. Dana Jr., 1999. "Using Yield Management to Shift Demand When the Peak Time is Unknown," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 456-474, Autumn.
    23. Capozza, Claudia, 2016. "The effect of rail travel time on airline fares: First evidence from the Italian passenger market," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 18-24.
    24. Lawrence R. Weatherford & Samuel E. Bodily, 1992. "A Taxonomy and Research Overview of Perishable-Asset Revenue Management: Yield Management, Overbooking, and Pricing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 831-844, October.
    25. James D. Dana Jr., 1999. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion Under Demand Uncertainty: The Roles of Costly Capacity and Market Structure," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(4), pages 632-660, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Avenali, Alessandro & Gregori, Martina & Reverberi, Pierfrancesco, 2023. "Intercity bus and rail services: Competition and welfare effects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    2. Sieg, Gernot & Wessel, Jan, 2022. "I would if I could: Passing through VAT reductions in the german rail industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    3. Gaggero, Alberto A. & Luttmann, Alexander, 2023. "The determinants of hidden-city ticketing: Competition, hub-and-spoke networks, and advance-purchase requirements," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2022. "Hidden prices with fixed inventory: Evidence from the airline industry," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 42-61.
    5. Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piazza, Giovanni, 2021. "Multilayer networks and route entry into the airline industry: Evidence from the U.S. domestic market," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2022. "Hidden prices with fixed inventory: Evidence from the airline industry," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 42-61.
    2. Melis, Giuseppe & Piga, Claudio A, 2016. "Are all online hotel prices created dynamic? An empirical assessment," MPRA Paper 75896, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2015. "Airline pricing under different market conditions: Evidence from European Low-Cost Carriers," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 152-163.
    4. Chengyan Gu, 2023. "Market segmentation and dynamic price discrimination in the U.S. airline industry," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 338-361, October.
    5. Sieg, Gernot & Wessel, Jan, 2022. "I would if I could: Passing through VAT reductions in the german rail industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    6. Marco Alderighi & Marcella Nicolini & Claudio A. Piga, 2012. "Combined Effects of Load Factors and Booking Time on Fares: Insights from the Yield Management of a Low-Cost Airline," Quaderni di Dipartimento 171, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods.
    7. Escobari, Diego & Jindapon, Paan, 2014. "Price discrimination through refund contracts in airlines," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-8.
    8. Diego Escobari, 2012. "Dynamic Pricing, Advance Sales and Aggregate Demand Learning in Airlines," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 697-724, December.
    9. Diego Escobari & Manuel A. Hernandez, 2019. "Separating Between Unobserved Consumer Types: Evidence From Airlines," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(2), pages 1215-1230, April.
    10. Yannis Kerkemezos & Bas Karreman, 2020. "On the Benefits of Being Alone: Scheduling Changes, Intensity of Competition and Dynamic Airline Pricing," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 20-042/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Angela Stefania Bergantino & Claudia Capozza, 2015. "Airline Pricing Behavior Under Limited Inter‐Modal Competition," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 700-713, January.
    12. Siegert, Caspar & Ulbricht, Robert, 2020. "Dynamic oligopoly pricing: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Diego Escobari & Nicholas G. Rupp & Joseph Meskey, 2019. "An Analysis of Dynamic Price Discrimination in Airlines," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 639-662, January.
    14. Alderighi, Marco & Nicolini, Marcella & Piga, Claudio A., 2016. "Targeting leisure and business passengers with unsegmented pricing," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 502-512.
    15. Escobari, Diego & Rupp, Nicholas & Meskey, Joseph, 2018. "Dynamic Price Discrimination in Airlines," MPRA Paper 88078, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ma, Jie & Tse, Ying Kei & Wang, Xiaojun & Zhang, Minhao, 2019. "Examining customer perception and behaviour through social media research – An empirical study of the United Airlines overbooking crisis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 192-205.
    17. Gaggero, Alberto A. & Luttmann, Alexander, 2023. "The determinants of hidden-city ticketing: Competition, hub-and-spoke networks, and advance-purchase requirements," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    18. Diego Escobari, 2013. "Asymmetric Price Adjustments in Airlines," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 74-85, March.
    19. Ambarish Chandra, 2020. "Price Discrimination along Multiple Dimensions: New Evidence from a Regional Airline," Working Papers tecipa-676, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    20. Marc Möller & Makoto Watanabe, 2016. "Competition in the presence of individual demand uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 273-292, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capacity effect; Flixbus; Dynamic pricing; Revenue management; Temporal effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecotra:v:19:y:2019:i:c:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecotra .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.