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Turnover and Regulation: The Chilean Pension Fund Industry

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Author Info
Solange Berstein
Alejandro Micco

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Abstract

We study price competition in a model with differentiated products and searching costs. In this model firms charge a price above marginal costs. This positive mark-up gives firms incentive to steal consumers from their rivals. For this purpose, firms hire sales agents that contact customers personally to switch them from one firm to another and offer rewards to the switchers. These rewards can be interpreted as a price cut to rival's customers, which is a form of price discrimination in this model. This model is applied to the Chilean pension funds industry. In 1995 there was more than one sales agent per two hundred customers with a turnover between Pension Fund Administrators of more than 50 percent. This high turnover was associated with large costs, and the authorities reacted by imposing restrictions to switching by the end of 1997. The empirical section of the paper attempts to analyze the role of sales agents in this industry and the impact of such restrictions.

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Paper provided by Central Bank of Chile in its series Working Papers Central Bank of Chile with number 180.

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Date of creation: Sep 2002
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Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:180

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Klemperer, Paul, 1995. "Competition When Consumers Have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 62(4), pages 515-39, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. repec:chb:bcchwp:04 is not listed on IDEAS
  3. Grossman, Gene M & Shapiro, Carl, 1984. "Informative Advertising with Differentiated Products," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(1), pages 63-81, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Kenneth S. Corts, 1998. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: All-Out Competition and Strategic Commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 306-323, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Stahl, Dale O., 1996. "Oligopolistic pricing with heterogeneous consumer search," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 243-268. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Peter Diamond, 2004. "Social Security," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 1-24, March. [Downloadable!]
  7. Asplund, Marcus & Eriksson, Rickard & Strand, Niklas, 2001. "Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: Evidence from Swedish Newspapers," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 468, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 01 Jan 2007.
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  8. Varian, Hal R., 1989. "Price discrimination," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 597-654 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Caminal, Ramon & Matutes, Carmen, 1990. "Endogenous switching costs in a duopoly model," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 353-373, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Drew Fudenberg & Jean Tirole, 1999. "Customer Poaching and Brand Switching," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1871, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
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  11. Yongmin Chen, 1997. "Paying Customers to Switch," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(4), pages 877-897, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Peter Diamond, 1999. "Administrative Costs and Equilibrium Charges with Individual Accounts," NBER Working Papers 7050, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Ippolito, Richard A, 1992. "Consumer Reaction to Measures of Poor Quality: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 45-70, April.
  14. Taylor, Curtis R., 2000. "Supplier Surfing: Competition and Consumer Behavior in Subscription Markets," Working Papers 00-12, Duke University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Severin Borenstein & Nancy L. Rose, 1995. "Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry," NBER Working Papers 3785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. J. Miguel Villas-Boas, 1999. "Dynamic Competition with Customer Recognition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(4), pages 604-631, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Tore Nilssen, 1992. "Two Kinds of Consumer Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(4), pages 579-589, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Alejandro Corvalán & Pablo Serra, 2005. "Sunk Prices And Salesforce Competition," Documentos de Trabajo 216, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile. [Downloadable!]
  2. Solange Berstein Jáuregui & Carolina Cabrita Felix, 2007. "Los determinantes de la elección de AFP en Chile: nueva evidencia a partir de datos individuales," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1 Year 20), pages 53-72, June. [Downloadable!]
  3. Rodrigo Cerda, 2006. "Movilidad en la Cartera de Cotizantes por AFP: La Importancia de ser Primero en Rentabilidad," Documentos de Trabajo 309, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  4. de la Torre, Augusto & Gozzi, Juan Carlos & Schmukler, Sergio L., 2006. "Financial development in Latin America : big emerging issues, limited policy answers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3963, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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