Consumer privacy and the market for customer information in electronic retailing are investigated. The value of customer information derives from the ability of firms to identify individual consumers and charge them personalized prices. Two settings are studied, a closed privacy regime in which sale of customer information is forbidden and an open privacy regime in which it is permitted. Consumers fare poorly and firms fare well under an open privacy regime when consumers are myopic. In such settings the opportunity to sell information often gives firms incentives to charge 'experimental' prices. When consumers are farsighted relative to firms, however, they may undermine the market for customer information by strategically rejecting offers. In this case, firms are always better off committing to keep customer information private.
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Paper provided by Duke University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
02-02.
Length: Date of creation: 2002 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:duk:dukeec:02-02
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Find related papers by JEL classification: C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
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