Essay on Price Discrimination

Imagine that you have decided to open a small ice cream stand on campus called "Ice-Campusades." You are very excited because you love ice cream (delicious!) and this is a fun way for you to apply your business and economics skills! Here is the first month's scenario--you order the same number (and the same variety) of ice creams each day from the ice cream suppliers, and your ice creams are always marked at $1.50 each. However, you notice that there are days when ice creams remain unsold but other days when there are not enough ice creams for the number of customers.

Given the values of all the other variables that affect demand, a higher price tends to reduce the quantity people demand, and a lower price tends to increase it. Of course, price alone does not determine the quantity of a good or service that people consume. Coffee consumption, for example, will be affected by such variables and income and preferences, as we will see later.

Amazon can use 3rd degree price discrimination to divide customers into different groups and charge a different price to customers in different customers in different groups, but the same price to all consumers within the group. The firm will charge groups of customers prices relative to their demand elasticities. We can illustrate this on a graph:

market, there is price competition. This can lead to price wars and, therefore, lower prices for

This is because of each seller is setting its price based upon the reaction by the prices its competitor establishes.

According to Melvin and Katz (2015), Lian’s denial of promotion falls under the mixed motive theory of discrimination. Mixed motive theory applies when motives are both legitimate and discriminatory, thus providing protection under Title VII. Therefore, Lian must prove that his protected-class membership was a substantial factor in the outcome of the promotion denial. Once Lian establishes proof of discrimination, the burden to prove the decision was made for legitimate reasons shifts to the employer.

In all three degrees of price discrimination firms are able to make more profit and eliminate any excess capacity they may have. Firms are able to do this by charging higher prices to those consumers with a more price inelastic demand for their product. The firm is reducing the welfare of these consumers by changing them at the maximum price they are willing to

The price ceiling is the maximum price a seller is allowed to charge for a product or service. An impact on society includes when the prices are so high of a product, that no one can buy it. A price floor is the lowest legal price a product or service can be sold at. When market price is at its lowest, it may still be too high for consumers to purchase products. Governments can intervene for any purpose, and they are the ones who set these price controls.

there are a number of different buyers and sellers in the marketplace. This means that we have competition in the market, which allows price to change in response to changes in supply and demand. Furthermore, for almost every product there are substitutes, so if one product becomes too expensive, a buyer can choose a cheaper substitute instead. In a market with many buyers and sellers, both the consumer and the supplier have equal ability to influence price.

Colleges and Universities are involved in third-degree price discrimination defined as the difference of prices depending on the factors of gender, sex, geographical location and socioeconomic status.According to Boundless “Analysis of Price Discrimination” “Price discrimination exists within a market when the sales of identical goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider. The goal of price discrimination is for the seller to make the most profit possible . Although the cost of producing the products is the same, the

The impact of increased cost of conducting business in low income areas has on pricing is shocking. A normal person would think it would be best to lower the pricing of products in low income areas to make them more affordable for the consumers, but your research showed a different angle. Economically it does make sense that the cost to run the business actually may cost more due to additional security cost and higher insurance rates. It is sad that price discrimination occurs between different economic demographical regions. The prices are not the same for everyone and this is to be considered as price discrimination (Thomas & Maurice, 2010). This is even true in medicine and pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical pricing schemes are

The greater the demand of a product, the greater the associated value, and hence greater will be price. Price is also dependent upon the supply of a product, the lower the supply, the higher the price. The price of a product is also dependent upon the state of the overall economic conditions. At the time of the recent recession, the ticket prices of matches and merchandise were set at a comparatively lower level than at the time of a boom. (Kotler)

For price discrimination to exist we need to sell the same products or services to different consumers which would not be possible without fulfilling specific conditions. This is mainly due to the fact that individuals are ration and therefore won’t be willing to spend more on a product than another consumer. For price discrimination to take place three important conditions need to be considered these include; incomplete competition, price flexibility, and arbitrage (simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset to profit from a difference in the price). For a company to operate within a market and be successful with price discrimination, the company must do this through a certain degree of market power. Therefore, the market demand curve should be at a negative slope this therefore creates market power to create price discrimination. Market power is a necessary

Competition within the industry as well as market supply and demand conditions set the price of products sold.

Price had never been this low where a desktop costs only $499, whereas laptops are hovering around $1100. Yet do not forget the $500 Apple mini sub compact laptop or the Apple iBook laptop that sells for $650, and the stripped down $400 after rebate laptops companies like Gateway and eMachine are flooding the market with to make money on volume of sales instead of a high price margin. The problem is even if the price of PCs plummets the effect is not felt immediately, because people do not rush to change their PC despite the fact they are getting it cheaper, which means the PC turnover rate is low like most durable goods. That might be what is contributing to the declining of prices, as the assumption of the manufacturers might be that if the price goes low enough people might want to change their computer to avail themselves the latest add-ons. Even the add-ons themselves seem to have reached their zenith some time ago and the latest most alluring gadget that came into existence was CD/DVD RW and every reasonably priced desktop or laptop is equipped with it. However, it does not mean the makers of PCs are not coming up with new functionality, add-ons, and price reductions to woo buyers. The other recent addition was Wi Fi that got boost from the introduction of Intel 's Centrino mobile technology chip and it had added a lot to the mobility of laptops, which can access the Internet wherever hot spots are available. Other than that, the overall performance of PCs despite