Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bundling In Advance Sales: Theory And Evidence From Round-Trip Versus Two One-Way Tickets*, Diego Escobari, Paan Jindapon, Nicholas G. Rupp

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We theoretically derive an optimal price for a bundle of two goods that are sold in advance to risk-averse buyers. The theory predicts that a round-trip ticket is less expensive than two one-way tickets when demands for the outbound and the inbound are uncertain and positively correlated. Using a unique airlines dataset, we find evidence that is consistent with the theory; round-trip bundle discounts exist and they are larger for passengers who buy early in advance, stay on a Saturday night, and have higher valuations. We also find that the bundle discounts decrease with competition.

Price Discrimination And Focal Points For Tacit Collusion: Evidence From The Airline Industry, Diego Escobari, Nicholas G. Rupp, Joseph Meskey

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We use unique data sets with round-the-clock posted fares and a regression discontinuity design to identify price discrimination in advance-purchase discounts. Price discrimination increases fares by 7.6% at 14 days to departure, and by 14% at 7 days to departure. While competition reduces price discrimination, it is unaffected by product variety for a multiproduct monopolist. The results show that the arbitrary thresholds of 7 and 14 days-in-advance serve as focal points for tacit collusion and to implement price discrimination in competitive markets. For round-trip tickets price discrimination depends on the days-in-advance for both the outbound and inbound flights.

Estimating Dynamic Demand For Airlines, Diego Escobari

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper uses an original panel dataset with posted prices and sales to estimate a dynamic demand. We find that consumers become more price sensitive as time to departure nears which is consistent with having lower valuations. This result provides empirical support to a key theoretical implication in Deneckere and Peck (2012)—high-valuation consumers purchase earlier. We also find that the number of active consumers increases closer to departure.

Highlights

• We use an original dataset with posted prices and sales to estimate a dynamic demand.

• The estimates are consistent with agents forming expectations.

• We find that high-valuation consumers …