IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tas/wpaper/10448.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Non-Linear Pricing with Homogeneous Customers and Limited Unbundling

Author

Abstract

This paper presents a model in which a firm conducts non-linear pricing though bundling. However some agents, ‘unbundlers’, find it profitable to unbundle output. Unbundlers have an increasing marginal cost of unbundling, which limits the extent of unbundling. Customers with identical demand can purchase either bundled or unbundled output. In equilibrium, some consumers purchase bundled output and others unbundled output. The analysis shows how the extent of unbundling and the optimal bundle size are related to the cost of unbundling. Failing to account for presence of unbundling could lead to a misinterpretation of market efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Sibly, Hugh, 2010. "Non-Linear Pricing with Homogeneous Customers and Limited Unbundling," Working Papers 10448, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 01 Aug 2010.
  • Handle: RePEc:tas:wpaper:10448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.utas.edu.au/10448/1/DP2010-04_Sibly_August2010.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aguirre, Inaki & Paz Espinosa, Maria, 2004. "Product differentiation with consumer arbitrage," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 219-239, February.
    2. Ingela Alger, 1999. "Consumer Strategies Limiting the Monopolist's Power: Multiple and Joint Purchases," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(4), pages 736-757, Winter.
    3. Gans, Joshua S. & King, Stephen P., 2007. "Perfect price discrimination with costless arbitrage," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 431-440, June.
    4. Giacomo Calzolari & Alessandro Pavan, 2006. "Monopoly with resale," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(2), pages 362-375, June.
    5. Peter J. Hammond, 1987. "Markets as Constraints: Multilateral Incentive Compatibility in Continuum Economies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(3), pages 399-412.
    6. Michael Waldman, 2003. "Durable Goods Theory for Real World Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-154, Winter.
    7. Eric Maskin & John Riley, 1984. "Monopoly with Incomplete Information," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(2), pages 171-196, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hugh Sibly, 2017. "Pricing Strategies with Costly Customer Arbitrage," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(3), pages 345-366, May.
    2. Georgia Kosmopoulou & Qihong Liu & Jie Shuai, 2016. "Customer poaching and coupon trading," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 219-238, July.
    3. Tian Xia & Richard Sexton, 2010. "Brand or Variety Choices and Periodic Sales as Substitute Instruments for Monopoly Price Discrimination," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 36(4), pages 333-349, June.
    4. Gerstle, Ari D. & Waldman, Michael, 2016. "Mergers in durable-goods industries: A re-examination of market power and welfare effects," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 677-692.
    5. Drew Vollmer, 2022. "Bundling with Resale," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 913-938, December.
    6. Banerjee, Sumitro & Soberman, David A., 2013. "Product development capability and marketing strategy for new durable products," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 276-291.
    7. Sumitro Banerjee & David A. Soberman, 2013. "Product development capability and marketing strategy for new durable products," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-13-01, ESMT European School of Management and Technology.
    8. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and industrial organization," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 511-517.
    9. Sibly, Hugh, 2008. "Quality Versus Quantity in Vertically Differentiated Products Under Non-Linear Pricing," Working Papers 7335, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 01 Jun 2008.
    10. Sibly, Hugh, 2008. "Vertical Product Differentiation with Linear Pricing," Working Papers 7335, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 01 Jul 2008.
    11. Bergemann, Dirk & Pavan, Alessandro, 2015. "Introduction to Symposium on Dynamic Contracts and Mechanism Design," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PB), pages 679-701.
    12. Andrea Attar & Thomas Mariotti & François Salanié, 2020. "The Social Costs of Side Trading," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(630), pages 1608-1622.
    13. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2011. "Price Discrimination," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Dirk Bergemann & Alessandro Bonatti, 2024. "Data, Competition, and Digital Platforms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(8), pages 2553-2595, August.
    15. James J. Anton & Gary Biglaiser, 2010. "Quality, Upgrades, and Equilibrium in a Dynamic Monopoly Model," Working Papers 10-36, Duke University, Department of Economics.
    16. Renato Gomes & Alessandro Pavan, 2013. "Cross-Subsidization and Matching Design," Discussion Papers 1559, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    17. Findeisen, Sebastian & Sachs, Dominik, 2014. "Efficient Labor and Capital Income Taxation over the Life Cycle," Working Papers 14-17, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
    18. Galiani, Sebastian & Jaitman, Laura & Weinschelbaum, Federico, 2020. "Crime and durable goods," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 146-163.
    19. Dennis L. Gärtner, 2010. "Monopolistic screening under learning by doing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(3), pages 574-597, September.
    20. Patricia van Loon & Luk N. Van Wassenhove & Ales Mihelic, 2022. "Designing a circular business strategy: 7 years of evolution at a large washing machine manufacturer," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1030-1041, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory

    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:tas:wpaper:10448. 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: Oscar Pavlov (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dutasau.html .

    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.