Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry

We study dispersion in the prices an airline charges to different passengers on the same route. This variation in fares is substantial: the expected absolute difference in fares between two passengers on a route is 36 percent of the airline's average ticket price. The pattern of observed price...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Borenstein, Severin (Author), Rose, Nancy L (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities (Contributor), Rose, Nancy L. (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Chicago Press, 2018-01-16T15:58:35Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Borenstein, Severin  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Rose, Nancy L.  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Rose, Nancy L  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Rose, Nancy L  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry 
260 |b University of Chicago Press,   |c 2018-01-16T15:58:35Z. 
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520 |a We study dispersion in the prices an airline charges to different passengers on the same route. This variation in fares is substantial: the expected absolute difference in fares between two passengers on a route is 36 percent of the airline's average ticket price. The pattern of observed price dispersion cannot easily be explained by cost differences alone. Dispersion increases on routes with more competition or lower flight density, consistent with discrimination based on customers' willingness to switch to alternative airlines or flights. We argue that the data support models of price discrimination in monopolistically competitive markets. 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Journal of Political Economy