The curse of knowledge: having access to customer information can reduce monopoly profits

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Laussel, Didier; Long, Ngo, V; Resende, Joana
• 署名单位: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Aix-Marseille Universite; McGill University; Universidade do Porto
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12336
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 650-675
• 关键词: price-discrimination

摘要

We show that a monopolist's profit is higher if he refrains from collecting coarse information on his customers, sticking to constant uniform pricing rather than recognizing customers' segments through their purchase history. In the Markov perfect equilibrium with coarse information collection, after each commitment period, a new introductory price is offered to attract new customers, creating a new market segment for price discrimination. Eventually, the whole market is covered. Shortening the commitment period results in lower profits. These results sharply differ from the ones obtained when the firm can uncover the exact willingness-to-pay of each previous customer.