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Look again at Figure 11.12 (p. 434), which shows the reservation prices of three consumers for two goods.

Assuming that marginal production cost is zero for both goods, can the producer make the most money by selling the goods separately, by using pure bundling, or by using mixed bundling? What prices should be charged?

Short Answer

Expert verified

The producer will make the most of the money by using the strategy of mixed bundling for selling goods.

The producer should charge $6 for Good 1 from Consumer A, $8.55 from Consumer B, and a bundle price of $20 for both goods from Consumer C.

Step by step solution

01

Step 1. Select the best pricing policy for the producer.

  • Separate pricing policy:Under this pricing policy, the producer charges separate prices for each good from the consumers based upon their maximum reservation prices. The producer will charge the price based upon the customer’s maximum reservation prices for good. Customer A’s reservation price for Good 1 is higher than Good 2. Customer B’s reservation price for Good 2 is higher than Good 2, and Customer C’s reservation price for both the good is the same.

Thus, under this policy, the producer can earn maximum profit by charging $6 for Good 1 from A, $8.25 for Good 2 from B, and $10 for either of the goods from C. Since the marginal cost is assumed zero, the total profit would be (6+8.25+10) = $22.25

  • Pure bundling:Under this pricing policy, the producers sell both the goods as an individual product and charge a combined price for both the goods. If the producer applies this pricing strategy, it will bundle both the goods into a single package. The maximum price the producer can charge is $20 for the package.

At this price, only Customer C would be able to purchase the package. Hence the total profit of the firm will be $20.

  • Mixed bundling:When a producer uses both the pricing policy (selling goods separately and pure bundling) to charge different consumers, it comes under a mixed bundling pricing policy. If the producer applies this pricing strategy, they will apply a separate pricing policy for Customer A and Customer B and sell the package of both the goods to Customer C.

Under this policy, the producer will charge $6 for Good 1 from A, $8.25 for Good 2 from B, and a package price of $14.25 from Customer C. The total profit would be the sum of all three, (6+8.25+14.25) = $28.5.

On comparing all the three possible pricing strategies, it is clear that the mixed pricing policy yields the maximum profit. Hence, the producer will earn most of the money by applying mixed pricing policy.

02

Step 2. Determining the prices that the producer should charge from consumers

The producer should charge a price equal to the maximum reservation prices of the customers for that good or combination of goods (package). Since the producer applies a mixed pricing strategy, they will apply a ‘separate pricing policy’ on Consumers A and B and bundling price from Consumer C.

Customer A’s reservation price for Good 2 is higher than Good 1, and Customer B’s reservation price for Good 1 is higher than Good 2. Thus, the producer will set the price for Good 1 at $6 and Good 2 at $8.25. In this way, the producer can earn the maximum possible return on both the goods.

The producer will offer a package price for both goods to Customer C. Customer C’s reservation price for each good is $10; they will buy the package of both the goods. The maximum price the producer will charge on the package will be the price sum of both the goods. Thus, Customer C will pay $14.25 (6+8.25) for the package.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Elizabeth Airlines (EA) flies only one route: Chicago–Honolulu. The demand for each flight is Q = 500 - P. EA’s cost of running each flight is \(30,000 plus \)100 per passenger.

  1. What is the profit-maximizing price that EA will charge? How many people will be on each flight? What is EA’s profit for each flight?
  2. EA learns that the fixed costs per flight are in fact \(41,000 instead of \)30,000. Will the airline stay in business for long? Illustrate your answer using a graph of the demand curve that EA faces, EA’s average cost curve when fixed costs are \(30,000, and EA’s average cost curve when fixed costs are \)41,000.
  3. Wait! EA finds out that two different types of people fly to Honolulu. Type A consists of business people with a demand of QA = 260 - 0.4P. Type B consists of students whose total demand is QB = 240 - 0.6P. Because the students are easy to spot, EA decides to charge them different prices. Graph each of these demand curves and their horizontal sum. What price does EA charge the students? What price does it charge other customers? How many of each type are on each flight?
  4. What would EA’s profit be for each flight? Would the airline stay in business? Calculate the consumer surplus of each consumer group. What is the total consumer surplus?
  5. Before EA started price discriminating, how much consumer surplus was the Type A demand getting from air travel to Honolulu? Type B? Why did total consumer surplus decline with price discrimination, even though total quantity sold remained unchanged?

Look again at Figure 11.17 (p. 438). Suppose that the marginal costs c1 and c2 were zero. Show that in this case, pure bundling, not mixed bundling, is the most profitable pricing strategy. What price should be charged for the bundle? What will the firm’s profit be?

In Example 11.1 (page 422), we saw how producers of processed foods and related consumer goods use coupons as a means of price discrimination. Although coupons are widely used in the United States, that is not the case in other countries. In Germany, coupons are illegal.

  1. Does prohibiting the use of coupons in Germany make German consumers better off or worse off?

  2. Does prohibiting the use of coupons make German producers better off or worse off?

Many retail video stores offer two alternative plans for renting films:

• A two-part tariff: Pay an annual membership fee (e.g., \(40) and then pay a small fee for the daily rental of each film (e.g., \)2 per film per day).

• A straight rental fee: Pay no membership fee, but pay a higher daily rental fee (e.g., $4 per film per day).

What is the logic behind the two-part tariff in this case? Why offer the customer a choice of two plans rather than simply a two-part tariff?

You are an executive for Super Computer, Inc. (SC), which rents out supercomputers. SC receives a fixed rental payment per time period in exchange for the right to unlimited computing at a rate of P cents per second. SC has two types of potential customers of equal number—10 businesses and 10 academic institutions. Each business customer has the demand function Q = 10 - P, where Q is in millions of seconds per month; each academic institution has the demand Q = 8 - P. The marginal cost to SC of additional computing is 2 cents per second, regardless of volume.

  1. Suppose that you could separate business and academic customers. What rental fee and usage fee would you charge each group? What would be your profits?
  2. Suppose you were unable to keep the two types of customers separate and charged a zero rental fee. What usage fee would maximize your profits? What would be your profits?
  3. Suppose you set up one two-part tariff—that is, you set one rental and one usage fee that both business and academic customers pay. What usage and rental fees would you set? What would be your profits? Explain why the price would not be equal to marginal cost.
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