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Robust monopoly pricing. (English) Zbl 1229.91124

Summary: We consider a robust version of the classic problem of optimal monopoly pricing with incomplete information. In the robust version, the seller faces model uncertainty and only knows that the true demand distribution is in the neighborhood of a given model distribution. We characterize the pricing policies under two distinct decision criteria with multiple priors: (i) maximin utility and (ii) minimax regret. The equilibrium price under either criterion is lower then in the absence of uncertainty. The concern for robustness leads the seller to concede a larger information rent to all buyers with values below the optimal price without uncertainty.

MSC:

91B24 Microeconomic theory (price theory and economic markets)
91B44 Economics of information
91B26 Auctions, bargaining, bidding and selling, and other market models
Full Text: DOI

References:

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