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Price Discrimination and Dispersion under Asymmetric Profiling of Consumers

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Abstract

Two duopolists compete in price on the market for a homogeneous product. They can use a 'profiling technology' that allows them to identify the willingness-to-pay of their consumers with some probability. If both firms have profiling technologies of the exact same precision, or if one firm cannot use any profiling technology, then the Bertrand paradox continues to prevail. Yet, if firms have technologies of different precisions, then the price equilibrium exhibits both price discrimination and price dispersion, with positive expected profits. Increasing the precision of both firms’ technologies does not necessarily harm consumers.

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  • Paul Belleflamme & Wing Man Wynne Lam & Wouter Vergote, 2017. "Price Discrimination and Dispersion under Asymmetric Profiling of Consumers," AMSE Working Papers 1713, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    • Handle: RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1713
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    Cited by:

    1. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2022. "Data brokers co-opetition [The impact of big data on firm performance: an empirical investigation]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 820-839.
    2. Morlok, Tina & Matt, Christian & Hess, Thomas, 2017. "Privatheitsforschung in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften: Entwicklung, Stand und Perspektiven," Working Papers 1/2017, University of Munich, Munich School of Management, Institute for Information Systems and New Media.
    3. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Exclusive Data, Price Manipulation and Market Leadership," CESifo Working Paper Series 7853, CESifo.
    4. David Bounie & Antoine Dubus & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2018. "Selling Strategic Information in Digital Competitive Markets," Working Papers hal-01794886, HAL.
    5. David Bounie & Antoine Dubus & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2021. "Selling strategic information in digital competitive markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(2), pages 283-313, June.
    6. Simon Anderson & Alicia Baik & Nathan Larson, 2023. "Price Discrimination in the Information Age: Prices, Poaching, and Privacy with Personalized Targeted Discounts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(5), pages 2085-2115.
    7. Riccardo Scarpa & Cristiano Franceschinis & Mara Thiene, 2021. "Logit Mixed Logit Under Asymmetry and Multimodality of WTP: A Monte Carlo Evaluation," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 643-662, March.
    8. Clavorà Braulin, Francesco, 2021. "The effects of personal information on competition: Consumer privacy and partial price discrimination," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-007, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    price discrimination; price dispersion; Bertrand competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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