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American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 11 2016

Intertemporal Price Discrimination: Dynamic Arrivals and Changing Values

Daniel F. Garrett

Toulouse School of Economics, University of Toulouse Capitole, 21 allée de Brienne, 31015 Toulouse Cedex 6, France (e-mail: )

Abstract

We study the profit-maximizing price path of a monopolist selling a durable good to buyers who arrive over time and whose values for the good evolve stochastically. The setting is completely stationary with an infinite horizon. Contrary to the case with constant values, optimal prices fluctuate with time. We argue that consumers’ randomly changing values offer an explanation for temporary price reductions that are often observed in practice.

DOI
10.1257/aer.20130564
Volume
106
Issue
11
Pages
3275-3299
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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