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The Impact of Price Discrimination on Revenue: Evidence from the Concert Industry

Author

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  • Pascal Courty
  • Mario Pagliero

Abstract

Concert tickets can either be sold at a single price or at multiple prices corresponding to different seating categories. We study the relationship between price discrimination and revenue by examining variations in the number of seating categories across concert, tour, artist, location, and time. Offering multiple seating categories leads to revenues that are approximately 5 percent higher than with single price ticketing. The return to price discrimination is higher in markets with more heterogeneous demand, in smaller venues and in more competitive markets. The return of increasing from three to four categories of seating is about half that of increasing from one to two.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascal Courty & Mario Pagliero, 2009. "The Impact of Price Discrimination on Revenue: Evidence from the Concert Industry," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 105, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    • Handle: RePEc:cca:wpaper:105
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    Cited by:

    1. Hayri A. Arslan & Necati Tereyağoğlu & Övünç Yılmaz, 2023. "Scoring a Touchdown with Variable Pricing: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in the NFL Ticket Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4435-4456, August.
    2. Siegert, Caspar & Ulbricht, Robert, 2020. "Dynamic oligopoly pricing: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Staffan Albinsson, 2023. "Workers’ access to Swedish opera houses and concert halls, 1898–2019," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 47(1), pages 1-30, March.
    4. Joris Drayer & Daniel A. Rascher & Chad D. McEvoy, 2012. "An examination of underlying consumer demand and sport pricing using secondary market data," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 448-460, October.
    5. Parakhonyak, Alexei & Vikander, Nick, 2023. "Information design through scarcity and social learning," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    6. Jong-Hee Hahn & Jinwoo Kim & Sang-Hyun Kim & Jihong Lee, 2018. "Price discrimination with loss averse consumers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 65(3), pages 681-728, May.
    7. Masahito AMBASHI & Momoka KAMITANI, 2025. "Ticket Pricing and Cast Size: Evidence from 2.5-dimensional musicals in Japan," Discussion papers 25067, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Dylan Thompson, 2024. "Front row or backstage? Evidence on concert ticket preferences from a discrete choice experiment," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(3), pages 463-491, September.
    9. Kevin R. Williams, 2022. "The Welfare Effects of Dynamic Pricing: Evidence From Airline Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(2), pages 831-858, March.
    10. Vlad Radoias, 2017. "When Price Discrimination Fails – A Principal Agent Problem with Social Influence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 212-221, March.
    11. Kevin R. Williams, 2017. "The Welfare Effects of Dynamic Pricing: Evidence from Airline Markets," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2103R2, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jun 2021.
    12. Hendrik Sonnabend, 2016. "Fairness constraints on profit-seeking: evidence from the German club concert industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 40(4), pages 529-545, November.
    13. Gihwan Yi & Min Kim & Hoe Sang Chung, 2024. "The Revenue Impact of Differential Seat Pricing and Competition in the Movie Theater Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 64(3), pages 361-382, May.
    14. Michael Rushton, 2011. "Pricing the Arts," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse (ed.), A Handbook of Cultural Economics, Second Edition, chapter 49, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Kevin R. Williams, 2017. "Dynamic Airline Pricing and Seat Availability," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2103, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    16. Courty, Pascal & Pagliero, Mario, 2012. "The Pricing of Art and the Art of Pricing: Pricing Styles in the Concert Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 8967, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Andreas Hinterhuber & Sara Viberti, 2023. "Pricing practices of football and basketball clubs in Italy," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 201-206, June.
    18. Övünç Yılmaz & Rob F. Easley & Mark E. Ferguson, 2023. "The future of sports ticketing: Technologies, data, and new strategies," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 219-230, June.
    19. Pascal Courty & Luke Davey, 2020. "The Impact of Variable Pricing, Dynamic Pricing, and Sponsored Secondary Markets in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(2), pages 115-138, February.
    20. Kevin R. Williams, 2017. "Dynamic Airline Pricing and Seat Availability," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2103R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised May 2020.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D42 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Monopoly
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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