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Personalized Pricing and Competition

American Economic Review
Articles
Published: 2024
Author(s): A. Rhodes and J. Zhou

Abstract

We study personalized pricing in a general oligopoly model. The impact of personalized pricing relative to uniform pricing hinges on the degree of market coverage. If market conditions are such that coverage is high (e.g., the production cost is low, or the number of firms is high), personalized pricing harms firms and benefits consumers, whereas the opposite is true if coverage is low. When only some firms have data to personalize prices, consumers can be worse off compared to when either all or no firms personalize prices.

Topics:
Economics
Journal:
American Economic Review
Volume:
114
Issue:
7
Pages:
2141-2170