Overbooking

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ely, Jeffrey C.; Garrett, Daniel F.; Hinnosaar, Toomas
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Collegio Carlo Alberto
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvw025
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1258-1301
• 关键词: advance-purchase discounts; mechanism design approach; revenue management; price-discrimination; maximization; auctions; demand; VALUES

摘要

We consider optimal pricing policies for airlines when passengers are uncertain at the time of ticketing of their eventual willingness to pay for air travel. Auctions at the time of departure efficiently allocate space and a profit maximizing airline can capitalize on these gains by overbooking flights and repurchasing excess tickets from those passengers whose realized value is low. Nevertheless profit maximization entails distortions away from the efficient allocation. Under regularity conditions, we show that the optimal mechanism can be implemented by a modified double auction. In order to encourage early booking, passengers who purchase late are disadvantaged. In order to capture the information rents of passengers with high expected values, ticket repurchases at the time of departure are at a subsidized price, sometimes leading to unused capacity. (JEL: D42, D44, D82).