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Loss Aversion and the Uniform Pricing Puzzle for Vertically Differentiated Products

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  • Courty, Pascal
  • Nasiry, Javad

Abstract

The uniform pricing puzzle for vertically differentiated products states that a monopolist sells high and low quality products at the same price despite the fact that quality is perfectly observable and that there are no significant costs of adjusting prices. The puzzle is relevant for movies, books, music, and mobile apps, among others. We show that the puzzle can be resolved by accounting for consumer loss aversion in monetary and consumption utilities and by assuming that consumers face a random utility shock. The novelty of our approach is that the reference transaction is endogenously set as part of a `personal equilibrium' and includes only past purchases of products of the same quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Courty, Pascal & Nasiry, Javad, 2015. "Loss Aversion and the Uniform Pricing Puzzle for Vertically Differentiated Products," CEPR Discussion Papers 10523, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10523
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Opher Baron & Ming Hu & Sami Najafi-Asadolahi & Qu Qian, 2015. "Newsvendor Selling to Loss-Averse Consumers with Stochastic Reference Points," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 456-469, October.
    3. Piccolo, Salvatore & Pignataro, Aldo, 2018. "Consumer loss aversion, product experimentation and tacit collusion," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 49-77.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Personal equilibrium; Uniform pricing puzzle; Vertically differentiated products; Expectations-based loss aversion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

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