经济学Essay作业：How Price Discrimination Affects Consumers and Producers

本文是工商管理专业的留学生Essay范例，题目是“How Price Discrimination Affects Consumers and Producers（价格歧视如何影响消费者和生产者）”，价格歧视是指企业为了获得更高的利润，对同样的商品向消费者收取不同的价格。价格歧视之所以可能，是因为同一种商品的消费产生的效用不同，需求的价格弹性也不同。价格歧视有三种类型，即一级价格歧视(完全价格歧视)、二级价格歧视和三级价格歧视。在这篇文章中，我们将看看不同类型的价格歧视如何影响消费者和生产者，以及公司是否有理由采用这种类型的价格歧视。

Price discrimination is a practice firms employ when they charge consumers different prices for the same good in order to earn higher profits. Price discrimination is made possible because of varying utility derived from the consumption of the same good and varying price elasticity of demand1. There are 3 types of price discrimination, namely: first-degree price discrimination (perfect price discrimination), second-degree price discrimination and third-degree price discrimination. In this essay, we will look at how the different types of price discrimination affect both consumers and producers, and whether or not firms are justified to employ that type of price discrimination.

A firm is said to have practised first-degree price discrimination when it charges each consumer a different price. Each different price corresponds to the value each individual consumer places on the good.

As seen in Figure 1 above, the firm charges different prices to different consumers according to how much consumers value the good, thus the marginal revenue curve is equal to the demand curve. So, all consumer surplus is captured by the firm. Output of the firm is at Q2, where marginal cost (MC) incurred by the firm is equal to marginal revenue (MR) of the firm. Profit earned by the firm is given by the green shaded area (A).

如图1所示，公司根据消费者对商品的价值向不同的消费者收取不同的价格，因此边际收入曲线等于需求曲线。所有的消费者剩余都被公司占有。企业的产出在Q2，此时企业产生的边际成本(MC)等于企业的边际收入(MR)。企业的利润由绿色阴影区域(A)给出。

In reality however, it is difficult to ascertain the value consumers place on the good offered by firms. The closest example is the case of Amazon2 charging different consumer different prices by tracking their online shopping behaviour. From there, Amazon can gauge the price sensitivity of a consumer. For consumers that are assessed to have relatively high price sensitivity, Amazon will charge them lower prices for the same good compared to other consumers with relatively lower price sensitivity.

Firms should practise perfect price discrimination because they produce at a socially optimum level. This also allows more customers (who previously could not afford the good) to consume the good. More consumers who previously were priced out of the market are able to afford the good3 now.

企业应该实行完全价格歧视，因为它们的生产处于社会最优水平。这也允许更多的顾客(以前买不起商品的人)消费商品。以前因价格过高而被市场排挤的消费者现在有能力买得起这种商品了。

When a firm does not practise perfect price discrimination, it fixes price at P1 and produces at an output of Q1. Profits earned by these firms will be given by the green shaded rectangle (B). Comparing Figure 1 and 2, it can be seen that firms earn more profits when it practises perfect price discrimination. Furthermore, firms that practise perfect price discrimination produces more of the good for consumers (Q2 > Q1). Lastly, there is a deadweight loss, given by the shaded brown triangle (D), when a firm does not practise perfect price discrimination.

However, when firms do not practise price discrimination, consumer surplus increases from 0 in Figure 1 to the black shaded area (C) in Figure 2. Furthermore, the issue of fairness crops up2: some consumers pay more for the same good because of their assessed consumption pattern. There is also a moral issue involved when firms go past the line by infringing on consumers “privacy” while ascertaining their price sensitivity, as illustrated by Amazon.

然而，当企业不实行价格歧视时，消费者剩余从图1中的0增加到图2中的黑色阴影区域(C)。此外，公平问题出现了2:一些消费者为同样的商品支付更多的钱，因为他们评估的消费模式。当公司在确定消费者对价格的敏感性的同时侵犯消费者的“隐私”时，也会涉及到道德问题，如亚马逊所示。

While there are good reasons on both sides as to whether firms should practise price discrimination, one must pause to ponder about the social and moral issues that crop up. How far can a firm go in assessing their consumers’ online behaviour? Is it fair that while firms charge more to other groups of consumers, they are at the same time allowing lower income groups of customers to consume the good? The fact that the practise of perfect price discrimination (or attempted replications of it) is ubiquitous and has long been used, suggest that such pricing strategy is ultimately beneficial to society3.

Second-degree price discrimination occurs when firms charge lower per unit prices as quantity purchase by consumers increases. For example, in Manchester, the Sugden Sports Centre charges students £165 for 9 months gym membership, £195 for 12 months gym membership and £5 per entry to the gym for students without the membership. Say a student would like to frequent the gym (workout twice a week) and continues going for the rest of the year. He is better off buying the 12 months membership because £195 < £5 x 2 x 4 x 12 = £480. Say another student (overseas student) would like to frequent the gym (workout twice a week) and continues going for 9 months (Length of academic year). He is better off buying the 9 months membership because £165 < £195 < £5 x 2 x 4 x 9 = £360. Lastly, say another student(Infrequent) who is not committed to working out in the gym but goes to the gym twice a month is better off not buying any gym membership.

当消费者购买量增加时，企业每单位价格收取更低的价格，就会发生二级价格歧视。例如，在曼彻斯特，萨格登体育中心(Sugden Sports Centre)对9个月健身房会员收取165英镑，对12个月健身房会员收取195英镑，对没有会员资格的学生每次进入健身房收取5英镑。比如，一个学生想经常去健身房(每周锻炼两次)，并且一直坚持到今年年底。他最好买12个月的会员资格，因为195英镑< 5 × 2 × 4 × 12 = 480英镑。假设另一名学生(留学生)想经常去健身房(每周锻炼两次)，并持续锻炼9个月(学年长度)。他最好买9个月的会员资格，因为165英镑< 195英镑< 5 × 2 × 4 × 9 = 360英镑。最后，另一个学生(不常去)说，他不承诺在健身房锻炼，但一个月去两次健身房，最好不买任何健身会员卡。

The above examples have shown that if Sugden Sports Centre sets a single price, say £195 for 12 months gym membership and no per entry fee, overseas students and infrequent students will not sign up for the gym and Sugden Sports Centre loses potential revenue. However, if Sugden Sports Centre were to charge a £5 per entry fee regardless of frequency of usage of the gym, frequent users will not go to the gym at Sugden Sports Centre. Thus, by practising second degree price discrimination through offering different prices to consumers who purchase different quantities of good, Sugden Sports Centre allows different groups of students(consumers) to use the gym(consume the good). So instead of just obtaining revenue from one group of consumers, a firm can now obtain revenue from the few groups, thereby maximising profits.

Figure 3 above shows the graphical representation of Sugden Sports Centre’s practice of second degree price discrimination. We assume that students who buy the 12 months and 9 months membership go to the gym twice a week every month. Therefore, at the end of their membership, students who subscribed to the 12 month membership would have gone to the gym 96 times and students who subscribed to the 9 month membership, 64 times. £2.57 is the calculated per visit entry fee for students who subscribed to the 12 month membership and £2.03 is the calculated per visit entry fee for the 9 month membership subscribers. Figure 3 clearly shows the falling per unit price as quantity of good or service consumed increases.

上面的图3显示了Sugden体育中心二级价格歧视的做法的图形表示。我们假设购买12个月和9个月会员卡的学生每个月每周去两次健身房。因此，在会员制结束时，12个月会员制的学生去健身房的次数为96次，9个月会员制的学生去健身房的次数为64次。对于12个月会员的学生，2.57英镑是每次访问的计算报名费;对于9个月会员的学生，2.03英镑是每次访问报名费。图3清楚地显示了每单位价格随着商品或服务消费数量的增加而下降。

Firms should practise second degree price discrimination because the good or service offered will be made more available to different groups of consumers. The above example shows that if the firm were to set a single price, some groups of consumers will be priced out. Hence, practising second degree price discrimination will result in a win-win situation for producers and consumers as producers earn higher profits while more consumers can enjoy the good3. However, in some cases where a monopoly operates in the market, the firm may charge a very high price for the first few quantities of good and seemingly relatively low price for larger quantities of the good. It is still unfair and being dishonest to consumers because the monopoly intends to mislead consumers into buying larger quantities of good and hence earn more profits.

Third-degree price discrimination is practised when a firm charges different prices to different identifiable groups for the same good or service. These groups are identifiable based on, for example, age or sex4.Three requirements must be met before a firm can practise third-degree price discrimination: there must be varying sensitivity to price among the different groups, firms must identify the different groups explicitly and no resale of goods can be made among the groups themselves.

第三级价格歧视是指公司对同一商品或服务向不同的可识别群体收取不同的价格。这些群体可以根据年龄或性别等来识别。在企业实施三级价格歧视之前，必须满足三个条件:不同群体之间对价格的敏感性必须不同，企业必须明确地识别不同群体，并且不能在这些群体之间进行商品转售。

For example in Singapore, a typical bus ride will cost students a fix fare of S$0.55 but it will cost an adult S$1.00. The bus company is able to charge different prices because the above three conditions are met. A student is more price sensitive to adults because adults are drawing income and thus have higher purchasing power. A student and an adult are easily identifiable through identification cards and for obvious reasons. And a student bus ticket cannot be used by an adult.

As seen in both figures, demand for bus rides by students is more price elastic than demand for bus rides by adults, hence the demand curve for students is less steep. At profit maximising output, students are charged S$0.55 per bus ride and adults are charged S$1.00 per bus ride. Thus, we can see that the firm charges different prices for different groups of consumers.

从两幅图中可以看出，学生乘坐公交车的需求比成年人乘坐公交车的需求更具价格弹性，因此学生的需求曲线不那么陡峭。为了实现利润最大化的产出，学生每乘一次巴士收费0.55新元，成人每乘一次巴士收费1.00新元。由此可见，企业对不同的消费者群体收取不同的价格。

In this case, it is justifiable for the bus company to practise third-degree price discrimination as the profits earned from adults taking the bus might be used to cover the costs incurred from charging a lower price for students. However, in some cases like events held in nightclubs- charging men a fee of say £20 while women can enter for free. The answer to whether a firm should practise third-degree price discrimination is now highly subjective.

The practice of price discrimination remains a double edged sword. On one hand, it may seem beneficial because more consumers who otherwise might be priced out from previous higher price can now consumer the good3.But on the other hand, social and moral issues like unfairness and privacy may entail2. There are also many other sound justifications as to why firms should or should not price discriminate: able to identify consumers who are willing to pay more3 and the issue of the loss of consumer surplus. Whether or not firms should price discriminate is highly subjective and varies from case to case because of varying benefits and costs to society.

价格歧视的做法仍然是一把双刃剑。一方面，这似乎是有益的，因为更多的消费者本来可能因先前较高的价格而被定价排挤，现在他们可以消费这种商品了。但另一方面，可能会涉及不公平和隐私等社会和道德问题。还有许多其他合理的理由来说明为什么公司应该或不应该进行价格歧视:能够辨别出哪些消费者愿意支付更多的钱，以及消费者剩余损失的问题。企业是否应该进行价格歧视是非常主观的，而且由于对社会的利益和成本不同而因人而异。

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