Information transmission and incentives not to price discriminate
ISSN: 1435-5469
Year of publication: 1999
Volume: 1
Issue: 3
Pages: 283-299
Type: Article
More publications in: Spanish economic review
Abstract
Abstract. This paper analyzes how the pricing policy of an incumbent may signal information not only on the demand level but also on the demand composition. A signalling game with two periods and two players (an established firm and a potential entrant) is considered. The potential entrant has incomplete information on market demand. There exist many sequential equilibria in which the uniform price policy acts as an entry deterrence device by hiding actual market profitability. We can interpret the uniform pricing policy as a rejection of the use of superior information on market demand composition in order to reduce the entrant's expected profits.