Revenue Management without Commitment: Dynamic Pricing and Periodic Flash Sales

S-Tier
Journal: Review of Economic Studies
Year: 2019
Volume: 86
Issue: 5
Pages: 1999-2034

Authors (2)

Francesc Dilmé (not in RePEc) Fei Li (University of North Carolina-C...)

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

A seller has a fixed number of goods to sell by a deadline. At each time, he posts a regular price and decides whether to hold a flash sale. Over time, buyers privately enter the market and strategically time their purchases. If a buyer does not purchase when she arrives, she can pay an attention cost to recheck the regular price afterwards, or she can wait for future flash sales where she may obtain a good at a discounted price. In the unique Markov perfect equilibrium, the seller sporadically holds flash sales to lower the stock of goods. A flash sale increases the willingness to pay of future buyers, but decreases the willingness to pay of buyers who arrive early in the game. When it is very likely that a buyer will obtain a good in a flash sale, the seller holds a “big” initial flash sale for all but one unit of the good.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:restud:v:86:y:2019:i:5:p:1999-2034.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25