The Welfare Effects of Spotify’s Cross-Country Price Discrimination

B-Tier
Journal: Review of Industrial Organization
Year: 2020
Volume: 56
Issue: 4
Pages: 593-613

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Abstract We calibrate a simple empirical logit model of world demand—and subscription pricing—at Spotify, with the use of available data on monthly prices and using streaming volumes by country to create measures of the numbers of users. We find that country-specific pricing increases revenue by 5.9% relative to uniform world pricing, while country specific pricing decreases world consumer surplus by 1.0%. Country-specific pricing within Europe increases revenue in Europe by 1.1%, and EU consumer surplus increases by 0.3% with country-specific pricing. Consumers in lower-income countries gain more from price discrimination than do the consumers in higher-income countries.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:kap:revind:v:56:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-020-09748-0
Journal Field
Industrial Organization
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29