IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/gamebe/v153y2025icp679-701.html

Trial plans as a means of price discrimination

Author

Listed:
  • Salamat, Ramtin

Abstract

When consumers differ in both their valuations and their likelihood of being well-matched with the product, the seller can benefit from offering trial plans as persuasion instruments to the extent of full surplus extraction. In the presence of picky consumers, those skeptical about product quality but willing to pay a premium if the product meets their standards, offering a menu of trials allows the seller to screen consumers and extract more surplus. If consumers with a higher valuation for a well matched product are more skeptical and consumers' expected valuation is an increasing and concave function of their probability of being well-matched, the seller can extract the full surplus by offering a menu of trial plans. This rationale for trials differs from others in the literature which are based on risk aversion or high marginal cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Salamat, Ramtin, 2025. "Trial plans as a means of price discrimination," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 679-701.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:153:y:2025:i:c:p:679-701
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2025.08.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825625001150
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.geb.2025.08.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex Smolin, 2023. "Disclosure and pricing of attributes," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 54(4), pages 570-597, December.
    2. David Besanko & Shabtai Donnenfeld & Lawrence J. White, 1987. "Monopoly and Quality Distortion: Effects and Remedies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(4), pages 743-767.
    3. Scott, Carol A & Yalch, Richard F, 1980. "Consumer Response to Initial Product Trial: A Bayesian Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(1), pages 32-41, June.
    4. Hao Li & Xianwen Shi, 2017. "Discriminatory Information Disclosure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(11), pages 3363-3385, November.
    5. Alonso, Ricardo & Câmara, Odilon, 2016. "Bayesian persuasion with heterogeneous priors," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 672-706.
    6. Stephen W. Salant, 1989. "When is Inducing Self-Selection Suboptimal for a Monopolist?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 391-397.
    7. Dong Wei & Brett Green, 2024. "(Reverse) Price Discrimination with Information Design," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 267-295, May.
    8. Luis Rayo & Ilya Segal, 2010. "Optimal Information Disclosure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(5), pages 949-987.
    9. Emir Kamenica & Matthew Gentzkow, 2011. "Bayesian Persuasion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2590-2615, October.
    10. Heski Bar‐Isaac & Guillermo Caruana & Vicente Cuñat, 2010. "Information Gathering and Marketing," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 375-401, June.
    11. Hsing Kenneth Cheng & Yipeng Liu, 2012. "Optimal Software Free Trial Strategy: The Impact of Network Externalities and Consumer Uncertainty," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 488-504, June.
    12. John D. C. Little & Katta G. Murty & Dura W. Sweeney & Caroline Karel, 1963. "An Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(6), pages 972-989, December.
    13. Nocke, Volker & Peitz, Martin & Rosar, Frank, 2011. "Advance-purchase discounts as a price discrimination device," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 141-162, January.
    14. Pascal Courty & Li Hao, 2000. "Sequential Screening," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(4), pages 697-717.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pham, Hien, 2025. "Disclosure and pricing with heterogeneous priors," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(PB).
    2. Pham, Hien, "undated". "a reprendre_ WP annulé," TSE Working Papers 21-1263, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    3. Pham, Hien, 2023. "How Information Design Shapes Optimal Selling Mechanisms," MPRA Paper 120989, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2024.
    4. Jonas von Wangenheim, 2022. "Optimal Information Design of Online Marketplaces with Return Rights," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2022_352v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany, revised Apr 2024.
    5. Yingkai Li, 2021. "Selling Data to an Agent with Endogenous Information," Papers 2103.05788, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    6. Guo, Yingni & Hao, Li & Shi, Xianwen, 2025. "Optimal discriminatory disclosure," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    7. Ichihashi, Shota & Smolin, Alex, 2025. "Data provision to an informed seller," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 131-144.
    8. Lyu, Chen, 2023. "Information design for selling search goods and the effect of competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    9. Chan, Jimmy & Gupta, Seher & Li, Fei & Wang, Yun, 2019. "Pivotal persuasion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 178-202.
      • Jimmy Chan & Seher Gupta & Fei Li & Yun Wang, 2018. "Pivotal Persuasion," Working Papers 2018-11-03, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University.
    10. Maxim Ivanov, 2021. "Optimal monotone signals in Bayesian persuasion mechanisms," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 72(3), pages 955-1000, October.
    11. Asriyan, Vladimir & Foarta, Dana & Vanasco, Victoria, 2018. "Strategic Complexity When Seeking Approval," Research Papers 3615, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    12. Hedlund, Jonas, 2017. "Bayesian persuasion by a privately informed sender," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 229-268.
    13. Alonso, Ricardo & Câmara, Odilon, 2018. "On the value of persuasion by experts," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 103-123.
    14. Leduc, Matt V. & Jackson, Matthew O. & Johari, Ramesh, 2017. "Pricing and referrals in diffusion on networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 568-594.
    15. Kolotilin, Anton & Li, Hongyi, 2021. "Relational communication," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 16(4), November.
    16. Krähmer, Daniel & Strausz, Roland, 2013. "Ex post information rents and disclosure in sequential screening," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 406, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    17. Krähmer, Daniel & Strausz, Roland, 2015. "Ex post information rents in sequential screening," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 257-273.
    18. Pham, Hien, 2023. "How Information Design Shapes Optimal Selling Mechanisms," MPRA Paper 120364, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2024.
    19. Jaesoo Kim & Dongsoo Shin, 2016. "Price Discrimination with Demarketing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 773-807, December.
    20. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-046 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Tsakas, Elias & Tsakas, Nikolas, 2021. "Noisy persuasion," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 44-61.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:153:y:2025:i:c:p:679-701. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.