题目:Network Effect and Multi-Network Sellers’ Dynamic Pricing: Evidence from the US Smartphone Market
报告人：Rong Luo (Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Georgia)
报告时间：2016年12月14日（周三） 2:00 pm
地点：国际经管学院会议室（诚明楼三层）
主办方：国际经济管理学院

摘要：The utility a consumer realizes from owning a smartphone increases with its operating system (OS) network size. The OS network effect influences the dynamic pricing strategy of multi-OS telecom carriers, who can internalize the competition across OSs. In this paper, I first study the carriers’ pricing strategy in a two-period, two-OS theoretical model. I then estimate a structural model of consumer demand and telecom carriers’ dynamic pricing game for two-year contract smartphones, using product level data from August 2011 to July 2013 in the US. From both the theoretical model and the estimates, I find that multi-OS carriers choose lower prices for large OSs than small OSs, while single-OS sellers would do the opposite in equilibrium. The estimate of the OS network effect in consumer utility is positive and significant. Counterfactual analyses show that, if the carriers specialized in different OSs or if the two-year contracts were eliminated, consumer surplus and smartphone penetration would decrease, and the big carriers’ profits would increase. This paper is the first to study multi-network sellers’ dynamic pricing problem and to estimate a model of dynamic continuous choice game among asymmetric multi-product firms.

报告人简介：Rong Luo is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Georgia. She got her Phd degree in economics from PSU.  Dr. Luo works mainly on IO and Applied Microeconomics. For more information, please refer to http://rongluoecon.weebly.com/