Screening with Congestion
CIRPEE Working Paper 12-39
36 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2012 Last revised: 7 Dec 2014
Date Written: April 27, 2014
Abstract
We study the effect of congestion on monopoly second-degree price discrimination. We provide three results. First, with congestion, the firm does not always provide distinct contracts (i.e., it is not always optimal to price discriminate) and it is more likely for the low-valuation buyer to be excluded. Second, the presence of congestion implies that no buyer receives an efficient allocation. In particular, the high-valuation buyer might be offered a higher or a lower quality (relative to the first-degree price discrimination offer). Finally, congestion might be beneficial to buyers. Specifically, for values of the parameters for which all types are serviced, consumer surplus under second-degree price discrimination may be greater than consumer surplus under no price discrimination.
Keywords: Congestion, Second-degree price discrimination, Screening
JEL Classification: D40, D62, D86, L14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation