Discussion Paper
No. 2019-50 | September 26, 2019
Iñaki Aguirre
Oligopoly price discrimination, competitive pressure and total output

Abstract

This paper extends the traditional analysis of the output effect under monopoly (third-degree) price discrimination to a multimarket oligopoly. The author shows that under oligopoly price discrimination, differences in competitive pressure, measured by the number of firms, across markets are more important than the relative demand curvature when determining the effect on total output.

JEL Classification:

D42, L12, L13

Links

Cite As

[Please cite the corresponding journal article] Iñaki Aguirre (2019). Oligopoly price discrimination, competitive pressure and total output. Economics Discussion Papers, No 2019-50, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2019-50


Comments and Questions



Anonymous - Referee Report 1
October 07, 2019 - 09:32
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Iñaki Aguirre - Reply to Referee Report 1
October 14, 2019 - 13:03 | Author's Homepage
Reply to Referee Report 1 “Oligopoly Price Discrimination, Competitive Pressure and Total Output” (MS#3323) Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. They will be very useful in the revision of the paper and the paper will hopefully improve in valuable dimensions. Following your suggestion, in the next version of the paper, I will stress the linear demand case. Perhaps a good idea would be to present firstly the linear case, and then, as an extension, to move to the nonlinear demand discussion. The matter is to clearly state that under oligopoly, differences in the intensity of competition across markets are more important than the relative curvature of demands and inverse demands, to determine the effect of price discrimination on total output (and therefore on social welfare). This is the main contribution of the paper and, therefore, the key takeaway idea for readers. With respect to the case of Bertrand competition with differentiated products and linear demand, I absolutely agree with you and the next version of the paper will include more discussion (and likely a formal proof in an Appendix). Thank you so much for calling my attention to several typos, one always tries to minimize them but unfortunately still remain. Again, thank you very much for your comments. They will be very useful for the new version of the paper.
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Anonymous - Invited Reader Comment
October 29, 2019 - 08:12
This paper shows conditions that allowing price discrimination harms/benefits social welfare and consumer surplus. The propositions clearly show such conditions. This is a nice contribution to industrial organization and competition policy. I have minor comments on the exposition. On page 3, It would be good to change the line right after the sentence containing footnote 6. The sentence right before equation (8) on page 6, (3) and (6) would be (3) and (7). Could you check if the second comment is correct? This paper often uses the last second centering equation on page 6 (right before equation (10)). It would be better to assign an equation number to this centering equation. Related to the last second centering equation on page 6, it would be better to explain how you change the first term of this equation to derive equations (14) and (15) on pages 9 and 10.

Iñaki Aguirre - Answer to Invited Reader Comment
October 30, 2019 - 15:42 | Author's Homepage
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Anonymous - Referee Report 2
October 29, 2019 - 08:26
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Iñaki Aguirre - Reply to Referee Report 2
October 30, 2019 - 15:44 | Author's Homepage
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