Marketing/Economics
Book Details

Retail Pricing Strategies and Market Power

Gordon Mills

An important contribution to bridge-building between economics and marketing, and provides real insights into pricing behaviour and practices.

About this Title

Many retailers have market power to an extent that gives them significant discretion in setting prices. Such sellers try to set price at the value of the product in the hands of the customer—rather than merely by reference to cost. To do this, they divide customers into groups, and set different prices for the different groups.

Gordon Mills, in studying this and related conduct, presents detailed information on the practices used in a variety of sectors, such as supermarkets, banks and airlines. His analysis rests on several basic concepts that the book introduces with admirable clarity.

He examines the contribution these practices make to profits, and the implications for the public interest, and he considers the potential role for initiatives by government and by consumer organisations. Throughout, he stresses the importance of the limits on consumer knowledge and understanding.

Retail Pricing Strategies and Market Power makes an important contribution to bridge-building between economics and marketing, and provides real insights into pricing behaviour and practices. This important study will be welcomed by those who work in pricing and regulatory management in both private industry and government, by consumer affairs staff and consumer associations, and by students and academics in both marketing and economics.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Economic Framework
1 First Ideas on Pricing Strategies
2 Price Dispersion and Consumer Knowledge
3 Price Discrimination

Markets for Branded Goods
4 Branded Goods: Retailing and Shopping
5 Store Prices: Dispersion and Discrimination
6 Bundling: Hamburgers and More
7 Package Sizes and Unit Pricing
8 Pharmaceuticals

Markets for Services
9 Retail Foreign Exchange
10 Personal Accounts at Banks
11 Air Travel in Australia
12 Conveyancing in Australia
13 General (and other) Medical Practice

Policy Conclusions
14 Government Regulation of Price Discrimination
15 Consumer Information

References
Index

About the Author

Gordon Mills is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney and was until recently the Director of its Centre for Microeconomic Policy Analysis. His most recent books are Optimisation in Economic Analysis and, with Mark Duckworth, The Gains from Clarity and Organising a Plain-Language Project .

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978-0-522-85038-3