论文标题
直接社会地理价格歧视的识别：iPhone的实证研究
Identification of Direct Socio-Geographical Price Discrimination: An Empirical Study on iPhones
论文作者
论文摘要
价格歧视是一种实践，使公司利用各种敏感性对消费者的价格提高利润。价格歧视的福利效果并不在经济学家之间达成共识，但是对此类行动的识别可能有助于我们对公司的定价行为的地位。在这封信中，我使用计量经济学工具来分析全球最大的公司之一Apple Inc是否是根据社会经济和地理因素来实践价格歧视。我的结果表明，在竞争较弱或苹果公司拥有强大市场存在的市场中，iPhone的昂贵（p $ <$ 0.01）。此外，在发展中国家/地区或高收入不平等的市场中，iPhone价格可能会上涨（p $ <$ 0.01）。
Price discrimination is a practice where firms utilize varying sensitivities to prices among consumers to increase profits. The welfare effects of price discrimination are not agreed on among economists, but identification of such actions may contribute to our standing of firms' pricing behaviors. In this letter, I use econometric tools to analyze whether Apple Inc, one of the largest companies in the globe, is practicing price discrimination on the basis of socio-economical and geographical factors. My results indicate that iPhones are significantly (p $<$ 0.01) more expensive in markets where competitions are weak or where Apple has a strong market presence. Furthermore, iPhone prices are likely to increase (p $<$ 0.01) in developing countries/regions or markets with high income inequality.
