Nonlinear Pricing with Average-Price Bias

David Martimort and Lars Stole

No 13842, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that consumers facing complex nonlinear pricing often make choices based on average (not marginal) prices. Given such behavior, we characterize a monopolist's optimal nonlinear price schedule. In contrast to the textbook setting, nonlinear prices designed for ``average-price bias'' distort consumption downward for consumers at the top, may produce efficient consumption for consumers at the bottom, and typically feature quantity premia rather than quantity discounts. These properties arise because the bias replaces consumer information rents with curvature rents. Whether or not a monopolist prefers consumers with average-price bias depends upon underlying preferences and costs.

Keywords: Nonlinear pricing; Average-price bias; Curvature rents; Price discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-des, nep-ind, nep-mic and nep-reg
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Related works:
Journal Article: Nonlinear Pricing with Average-Price Bias (2020)
Working Paper: Nonlinear Pricing with Average-Price Bias (2020)
Working Paper: Nonlinear Pricing with Average-Price Bias (2020)
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