
Basically, it's because producers get to sell more and consumers get to buy at prices they can afford. Explanation: There are three degrees of price discrimination, in Microeconomic Theory. First degree is when each unit can be sold at a different price, what some might name one-to-one sales (or market).
Is price discrimination always good for producers?
In conclusion, price discrimination is good for producers, however it can be both positive and negative for consumers.
How does price discrimination benefit producers quizlet?
Price discrimination allows firm to make more revenue, because consumer surplus is eroded. Price discrimination might allow firm to produce more and benefit from economies of scale, lowering costs and prices in all segments. Price discrimination may enable a firm to drive competitors out of the more elastic market.
What is meant by price discrimination and how can it be used to benefit producers?
Price Discrimination involves charging a different price to different groups of consumers for the same good. Price discrimination can provide benefits to consumers, such as potentially lower prices, rewards for choosing less popular services and helps the firm stay profitable and in business.
Does price discrimination increase producer surplus?
As indicated above, price discrimination allows a firm to reap additional profits and convert consumer surplus into producer surplus.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of price discrimination?
Some benefits of price discrimination include more revenues for the seller, lower prices for some customers, and well-regulated demand. The disadvantages of price discrimination are a potential reduction in consumer surplus, possible unfairness, and administration costs for separating the market.
What does price discrimination mean in economics?
What Is Price Discrimination? Price discrimination is a selling strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service based on what the seller thinks they can get the customer to agree to. In pure price discrimination, the seller charges each customer the maximum price they will pay.
How does price discrimination affect consumer and producer surplus?
7:039:37Price discrimination, consumer and producer surplus - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSo first degree price discrimination or sometimes called perfect price discrimination is where theMoreSo first degree price discrimination or sometimes called perfect price discrimination is where the firm's able to charge each consumer the maximum.
Is price discrimination good or bad for consumers?
Price discrimination can be harmful if it is costly to impose and reduces consumer surplus in the short run without a sufficient compensating effect. Such compensating effects might include expanding the market, intensifying competition, preventing commitment to maintain high prices, or incentivising innovation.
How can price discrimination Maximise profit?
To maximise profits a firm sets output and price where MR=MC. If there are two sub markets with different elasticities of demand. The firm will increase profits by setting different prices depending upon the slope of the demand curve.
Does price discrimination increase economic efficiency?
Price discrimination is utilised by firms to receive a larger amount of profit, as long as the marginal revenue is greater than the marginal cost. Therefore the greater profit that is received through price discrimination could be used to increase dynamic efficiency.
Are price discriminating monopolies productively efficient?
The perfectly price discriminating monopolist will be allocatively efficient because the last unit sold will have a price equal to marginal cost.
How does perfect price discrimination affect consumer surplus?
Perfect Price Discrimination. There is no consumer surplus. There is no deadweight loss. Everyone pay the highest price they are willing to pay for each unit purchased.
How does price discrimination benefit consumers?
Price discrimination can provide benefits to consumers, such as potentially lower prices, rewards for choosing less popular services and helps the firm stay profitable and in business. The advantages of price discrimination will be appreciated more by some groups of consumers.
How does price discrimination help a firm?
Price discrimination helps a firm to become more profitable. This may enable the firm to invest in increased capacity. For example, an airline which maximises profits from price discrimination can invest in updating its aircraft to the latest technology.
What would happen if there was no price discrimination?
If there were no price discrimination rush hour trains would be more overcrowded. Price discrimination gives an incentive for some people to go later in the day. This means that those who have to travel at rush hour benefit from less congestion. Low-income consumers may be able to benefit from cheaper prices.
Can price discrimination make a firm make a profit?
In some cases, it may be possible that there is no one price that would enable a firm to make normal profits. (i.e. average costs would always be higher than demand curve) However, price discrimination may enable the firm to turn a loss into a small profit.
Can low income consumers benefit from cheaper prices?
Low-income consumers may be able to benefit from cheaper prices . One form of indirect price discrimination is to offer lower prices to consumers who collect coupons. This imposes a cost on consumers (time to collect). So if consumers are time-rich and money poor, they can take advantage of lower prices. Investment.
Why is price discrimination a form of price discrimination?
Because companies or organizations engaged in price discrimination offer discounts for more price-sensitive customers, buyers who would be otherwise excluded from various goods and services are able to benefit from those goods and services. For example, financial aid for colleges is a form of price discrimination because different students pay ...
Why do computers reinforce prejudice?
Because computer algorithms are designed to resemble people’s behavior, they may reinforce human prejudices. For example, a study by Carnegie Mellon researchers found that Google tended to show more advertisements for high-income jobs to men than to women. [6] .
Does anti-discrimination law apply to price discrimination based on consumer data?
Anti-discrimination laws prohibiting price discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or other personal characteristics also do not apply to price discrimination based on consumer data because companies are charging customers based on their perceived ability to pay, not on some personal characteristic. [4]
Can Amazon Prime members buy at discounted prices?
Of course, certain groups of customers, such as Amazon Prime members may be able to buy things at discounted prices, but if there is no clear reason for being offered a discount, it seems natural that everyone should pay the same price for the same product. This is, at least, how pricing works in most stores we know.
Does Amazon use demographic data?
Although Amazon claimed to have not used demographic information to determine the amount of discounts, a study in 2013 about Netflix by Benjamin Shiller showed that factoring in demographic information and web browsing data may be an extremely attractive option for companies looking for ways to increase profit. [1] .
Why do producers price discriminate?
In such a situation, the firm is able to increase its revenues by selling to customers who were originally not going to purchase, by offering price = each customer’s willingness to pay. As indicated above, price discrimination allows a firm to reap additional profits and convert consumer surplus into producer surplus.
Is price discrimination always bad for all consumers?
This naturally increases the company’s profit because it can charge customers as much as their willingness to pay, which may be higher than a previously set uniform price. Moreover, contradictory as it may seem, price discrimination is not necessarily harmful to consumers.
What are the benefits and consequences of price discrimination?
Price discrimination benefits businesses through higher profits. A discriminating monopoly is extracting consumer surplus and turning it into supernormal profit. Price discrimination also might be used as a predatory pricing tactic to harm competition at the supplier’s level and increase a firm’s market power.
Why is price discrimination important?
The purpose of price discrimination is to capture the market’s consumer surplus. Price discrimination allows the seller to generate the most revenue possible for a product or service.
What is an example of price discrimination quizlet?
Example: Software is sold at different prices to users and companies. Second-degree price discrimination is said to take place when a firm charges different prices to consumers depending on how much they purchase. They might charge a certain price for the first units but then less the more you purchase.
Which of the following is an example of price discrimination?
Regular gasoline costs less than premium gasoline. d. All of the above are examples of price discrimination.
What are the conditions for price discrimination quizlet?
1) Firm must have a certain degree of market control/dominance e.g. monopoly. 2) Identification of different groups of customers. 3) Different groups of customers must have different price elasticities of demand. 4) Knowledge of prices customers will pay.
Why is price discrimination important?
Price discrimination will enable some firms to stay in business who otherwise would have made a loss. For example price discrimination is important for train companies who offer different prices for peak and off-peak. Without price discrimination, they may go out of business or be unable to provide off-peak services.
What is price discrimination?
Definition – Price discrimination involves charging a different price to different groups of people for the same good. For example – student discounts, off peak fares cheaper than peak fares.
How does price discrimination affect inequality?
Price discrimination enables a transfer of money from consumers to firms – contributing to increased inequality. Potentially unfair. Those who pay higher prices may not be the poorest. For example, adults paying full price could be unemployed, senior citizens can be very well off.
How to maximise profits?
To maximise profits a firm sets output and price where MR=MC. If there are two sub markets with different elasticities of demand. The firm will increase profits by setting different prices depending upon the slope of the demand curve.
What are the different types of price discrimination?
Different Types of Price Discrimination. 1. First Degree Price Discrimination. This involves charging consumers the maximum price that they are willing to pay. There will be no consumer surplus. 2. Second Degree Price Discrimination. This involves charging different prices depending upon the choices of consumer.
Is electricity more expensive after 10 minutes?
After 10 minutes phone calls become cheaper. Electricity is more expensive for the first number of units. For a higher quantity of electricity consumed the marginal cost is lower. Loyalty cards reward frequent buyers with discounts on future products. If you collect coupons from a newspaper you can get a discount.
How does price discrimination benefit firms?
Price discrimination can benefit firms with high fixed costs associated with the building of infrastructure, and its maintenance. This includes natural monopolies such as gas, electricity supply, and transport services. For example, having more passengers on a train that is going to run anyway provides additional revenue to the train operators. This revenue may be used to add to profits (given that the marginal cost of one extra passenger is virtually zero) or to cover new fixed costs, such as track or safety improvements.
Why is price discrimination important?
Enables survival. As a result of generating additional revenue, price discrimination can enable firms to survive. For example, small cinemas might be better able to survive if they can offer low priced off-peak cinema tickets to the over-65s for day-time screenings.
What is arbitrage in trading?
Arbitrage is a process where traders, acting as either buyers or sellers, can exploit price differences for identical products – buying where the price is lower and selling where it is higher. The effect of this is to make prices converge, given the different effects of buying and selling in the market.
Why is price discrimination based on time of day?
Price discrimination according to the time of day means that the flow of customers into retail stores can be managed more effectively , which might provide a better experience for shoppers and spread out the work for staff. For example, having a ‘happy hour’ or ‘early bird’ prices may encourage shoppers to adjust their shopping times so that queues are shortened at more peak times, as well as ensuring that staff are better employed throughout the day.
What is third degree price discrimination?
Third-degree price discrimination means charging a different price to different consumer groups. For example, rail and tube travellers can be subdivided into commuter and casual travellers, and cinema goers can be subdivide into adults and children. Splitting the market into peak and off peak use is very common and occurs with gas, electricity, and telephone supply, as well as gym membership and parking charges. Third-degree discrimination is the commonest type.
What is price discrimination?
Price discrimination is the practice of charging a different price for the same good or service. There are three types of price discrimination – first-degree, second-degree, and third-degree price discrimination.
Why do firms offer discounts?
Also, firms can offer discounts in order to get consumer feedback on these trialled products, and on existing ones.
Why is price discrimination beneficial?
Price discrimination is also beneficial to society for it helps in reducing inequalities of personal incomes when higher prices or fees are charged to the rich than to the poor. In public utility services, the higher price charged to the higher income groups serves as a tool for income redistribution because the government may use these funds ...
Why do governments allow price discrimination?
Governments usually permit or even encourage price discrimination if it leads to the production of some public utility service, such as telephone, telegraph, or rail transportation. In public utility services, the higher income groups are charged higher prices and the funds so collected may be used to subsidies the goods meant for the poor. ...
How does price discrimination affect society?
Price discrimination is, however, harmful to society when it leads to a misdistribution of resources as between different uses with the result that output, employment and income are not maximised. Further, it may lead to the diversion of resources from their socially optimal uses.
Why is production not possible?
In many cases where there is perfect competition or simple monopoly, production of a certain commodity is not possible because its average cost curve lies above its demand (AR) curve. But under price discrimination, the average cost curve is likely to be below the average revenue curve at some point. Thus, if there were no discrimination, society ...
Is production possible on the D curve?
So no production is possible at to any price on the d curve. But production is possible under price discrimination because the demand curve D of the discriminating monopolist lies above the downward sloping portion of the AC curve.
Is price discrimination harmful?
ADVERTISEMENTS: Price discrimination is, however, harmful to society when it leads to a misdistribution of resources as between different uses with the result that output, employment and income are not maximised. Further, it may lead to the diversion of resources from their socially optimal uses. It leads to wastes of resources when people are made ...

Types of Price Discrimination
Necessary Conditions For Price Discrimination
- Price discrimination is rarely possible unless certain market conditions are met: 1. Different market segments, such as retail users and institutional users, must exist. 2. Market segments must be kept separate by factors such as time, distance, or how they use the product. 3. Different segments must be motivated by different prices. 4. There must be no "seepage" between two m…
Price Discrimination Examples
- First-degree discrimination might involve some negotiating or "haggling" over price. Car sales at a dealership are an example. Customers rarely expect to pay the sticker priceand many variables that eventually determine the final purchase price. A scalper of concert tickets or sellers of produce at a market might also use a first-degree discrimination approach to maximize sales. C…