This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Evaluating Welfare with Nonlinear Prices

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Peter C. Reiss
Matthew W. White
Abstract

This paper examines how to evaluate consumer welfare when consumers face nonlinear prices. This problem arises in many settings, such as devising optimal pricing strategies for firms, assessing how price discrimination affects consumers, and evaluating the efficiency costs of many transfer programs in the public sector. We extend prior methods to accommodate a broad range of modern pricing practices, including menus of pricing plans. This analysis yields a simpler and more general technique for evaluating exact consumer surplus changes in settings where consumers face nonlinear prices. We illustrate our method using recent changes in mobile phone service plans.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12370.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12370.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: Jul 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12370

Note: IO
Contact details of provider:
Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Phone: 617-868-3900
Email:
Web page: http://www.nber.org
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - General
H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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. Latham, Roger W, 1980. "Quantity Constrained Demand Functions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(2), pages 307-13, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Armstrong, Mark, 2006. "Price discrimination," MPRA Paper 4693, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. De Borger, B., 1989. "Estimating The Welfare Implications Of In-Kind Government Programs: A General Numerical Approach," Papers 2-89-2, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
  4. Jerry A. Hausman, 1983. "Stochastic Problems in the Simulation of Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral Simulation Methods in Tax Policy Analysis, pages 47-82 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  5. Moffitt, Robert, 1986. "The Econometrics of Piecewise-Linear Budget Constraints: A Survey and Exposition of the Maximum Likelihood Method," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(3), pages 317-28, July.
  6. Hausman, Jerry A, 1985. "The Econometrics of Nonlinear Budget Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1255-82, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Fullerton, Don & Gan, Li, 2004. "A simulation-based welfare loss calculation for labor taxes with piecewise-linear budgets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 2339-2359, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Burtless, Gary & Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "The Effect of Taxation on Labor Supply: Evaluating the Gary Negative Income Tax Experiments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 1103-30, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Creedy, John & Duncan, Alan, 2002. " Behavioural Microsimulation with Labour Supply Responses," Journal of Economic Surveys, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(1), pages 1-39, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Moffitt, Robert, 1990. "The Econometrics of Kinked Budget Constraints," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 119-39, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Blomquist, N. Soren, 1983. "The effect of income taxation on the labor supply of married men in Sweden," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 169-197, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. 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)
  13. de Borger, Bruno, 1989. "Estimating the welfare implications of in-kind government programs : A general numerical approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 215-226, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Blundell, Richard & Meghir, Costas & Symons, Elizabeth & Walker, Ian, 1988. "Labour supply specification and the evaluation of tax reforms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 23-52, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Schwab, Robert M., 1985. "The benefits of in-kind government programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 195-210, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Daniel T. Slesnick, 1998. "Empirical Approaches to the Measurement of Welfare," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 2108-2165, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Daniel McFadden, 1996. "Computing Willingness-to-Pay in Random Utility Models," Working Papers _011, University of California at Berkeley, Econometrics Laboratory Software Archive.
  18. Hausman, Jerry A, 1981. "Exact Consumer's Surplus and Deadweight Loss," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 662-76, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Hans M. Amman & David A. Kendrick, . "Computational Economics," Online economics textbooks, SUNY-Oswego, Department of Economics, number comp1, March. [Downloadable!]
  20. John Creedy & Guyonne Kalb, 2005. "Measuring Welfare Changes In Labour Supply Models," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 73(6), pages 664-685, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Blundell, Richard & Macurdy, Thomas, 1999. "Labor supply: A review of alternative approaches," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1559-1695 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  22. Neary, J. P. & Roberts, K. W. S., 1980. "The theory of household behaviour under rationing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 25-42, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  23. Diamond, P. A. & McFadden, D. L., 1974. "Some uses of the expenditure function in public finance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 3-21, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Geweke, John, 1996. "Monte carlo simulation and numerical integration," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: H. M. Amman & D. A. Kendrick & J. Rust (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 731-800 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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. Arjan Ruijs, 2009. "Welfare and Distribution Effects of Water Pricing Policies," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(2), pages 161-182, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Aaron Strong & V. Kerry Smith, 2008. "Reconsidering the Economics of Demand Analysis with Kinked Budget Constraints," NBER Working Papers 14304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? About 1000 archives contribute their bibliographic data to RePEc.

This page was last updated on 2009-12-17.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.