Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning and Reference Effects

Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning and Reference Effects PDF Author: Arnoud den Boer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
We consider a seller's dynamic pricing problem with demand learning and reference effects. We first study the case where customers are loss-averse: they have a reference price that can vary over time, and the demand reduction when the selling price exceeds the reference price dominates the demand increase when the selling price falls behind the reference price by the same amount. Thus, the expected demand as a function of price has a time-varying "kink" and is not differentiable everywhere. The seller neither knows the underlying demand function nor observes the time-varying reference prices. In this setting, we design and analyze a policy that (i) changes the selling price very slowly to control the evolution of the reference price, and (ii) gradually accumulates sales data to balance the tradeoff between learning and earning. We prove that, under a variety of reference-price updating mechanisms, our policy is asymptotically optimal; i.e., its T-period revenue loss relative to a clairvoyant who knows the demand function and the reference-price updating mechanism grows at the smallest possible rate in T. We also extend our analysis to the case of a fixed reference price, and show how reference effects increase the complexity of dynamic pricing with demand learning in this case. Moreover, we study the case where customers are gain-seeking and design asymptotically optimal policies for this case. Finally, we design and analyze an asymptotically optimal statistical test for detecting whether customers are loss-averse or gain-seeking.

Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning and Reference Effects

Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning and Reference Effects PDF Author: Arnoud den Boer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
We consider a seller's dynamic pricing problem with demand learning and reference effects. We first study the case where customers are loss-averse: they have a reference price that can vary over time, and the demand reduction when the selling price exceeds the reference price dominates the demand increase when the selling price falls behind the reference price by the same amount. Thus, the expected demand as a function of price has a time-varying "kink" and is not differentiable everywhere. The seller neither knows the underlying demand function nor observes the time-varying reference prices. In this setting, we design and analyze a policy that (i) changes the selling price very slowly to control the evolution of the reference price, and (ii) gradually accumulates sales data to balance the tradeoff between learning and earning. We prove that, under a variety of reference-price updating mechanisms, our policy is asymptotically optimal; i.e., its T-period revenue loss relative to a clairvoyant who knows the demand function and the reference-price updating mechanism grows at the smallest possible rate in T. We also extend our analysis to the case of a fixed reference price, and show how reference effects increase the complexity of dynamic pricing with demand learning in this case. Moreover, we study the case where customers are gain-seeking and design asymptotically optimal policies for this case. Finally, we design and analyze an asymptotically optimal statistical test for detecting whether customers are loss-averse or gain-seeking.

Online Learning and Pricing for Multiple Products with Reference Price Effects

Online Learning and Pricing for Multiple Products with Reference Price Effects PDF Author: Sheng Ji
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We consider the dynamic pricing problem of a monopolist seller who sells a set of mutually substitutable products over a finite time horizon. Customer demand is sensitive to the price of each individual product and the reference price which is formed from a comparison among the prices of all products. To maximize the total expected profit, the seller needs to determine the selling price of each product and also selects a reference product (to be displayed) that affects the consumer's reference price. However, the seller initially knows neither the demand function nor the customer's reference price, but can learn them from past observations on the fly. As such, the seller faces the classical trade-off between exploration (learning the demand function and reference price) and exploitation (using what has been learned thus far to maximize revenue). We propose a dynamic learning-and-pricing algorithm that integrates iterative least squares estimation and bandit control techniques in a seamless fashion. We show that the cumulative regret, i.e., the expected revenue loss caused by not using the optimal policy over $T$ periods, is upper bounded by $O((n^2+n) sqrt{T} log T)$, which is optimal up to a logarithmic factor in terms of the time horizon $T$ and polynomially scaling with the number of products $n$. We also establish the regret lower bound (for any learning policies) to be $ Omega(n^{1.5} sqrt{T})$. We then generalize our analysis to a more general demand model. Finally, our algorithm performs consistently well numerically, outperforming an exploration-exploitation benchmark. We also identify an interesting ``loss-leader'' phenomenon in our computational study.

Dynamic Pricing and Demand Learning with Limited Price Experimentation

Dynamic Pricing and Demand Learning with Limited Price Experimentation PDF Author: Wang Chi Cheung
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
In a dynamic pricing problem where the demand function is not known a priori, price experimentation can be used as a demand learning tool. Existing literature usually assumes no constraint on price changes, but in practice sellers often face business constraints that prevent them from conducting extensive experimentation. We consider a dynamic pricing model where the demand function is unknown but belongs to a known finite set. The seller is allowed to make at most m price changes during T periods. The objective is to minimize the worst case regret, i.e., the expected total revenue loss compared to a clairvoyant who knows the demand distribution in advance. We demonstrate a pricing policy that incurs a regret of O(log^(m) T), or m iterations of the logarithm. Furthermore, we describe an implementation at Groupon, a large e-commerce marketplace for daily deals. The field study shows significant impact on revenue and bookings.

Behavioral Consequences of Dynamic Pricing

Behavioral Consequences of Dynamic Pricing PDF Author: David Prakash
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3756863514
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
Digital technologies are driving the application of dynamic pricing. Today, this pricing strategy is used not only for perishable products such as flights or hotel rooms, but for almost any product or service category. With dynamic pricing, retailers frequently adjust their prices over time to respond to factors such as demand, their supply and that of competitors, or the time of sale. Additionally, dynamic pricing allows retailers to take advantage of a large share of consumers' willingness to pay while avoiding losses from unsold products. Ultimately, this can lead to an increase in revenue and profit. However, the application of dynamic pricing comes with great challenges. In addition to the technological implementation, companies have to take into account that dynamic pricing can cause complex and unintended behavioral consequences on the consumer side. The key objective of this dissertation is to provide a deeper understanding of the impact of dynamic pricing on consumer behavior. To this end, this dissertation presents insights from four perspectives. First, how reference prices as a critical component in purchase decisions are operationalized. Second, how customers search for products priced dynamically, differentiated by business and private customers, as well as by different devices used for the search. Third, whether and how dynamic pricing influences the impact of internal reference prices on purchase decisions. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates that consumers perceive price changes as personalized in different purchase contexts, leading to reduced perceptions of fairness and undesirable behavioral consequences.

Multi-Product Dynamic Pricing with Reference Effects Under Logit Demand

Multi-Product Dynamic Pricing with Reference Effects Under Logit Demand PDF Author: Mengzi Amy Guo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We consider an infinite-horizon multi-product dynamic pricing problem with reference effects in a monopolistic setting, where the reference price is an exponentially weighted average of historical prices. In each period, the demand follows the multinomial logit (MNL) model, where the utility depends on both the current price and the reference price, and consumers can have product-differentiated sensitivities to the price and the reference price. We conduct thorough analyses of the myopic pricing policy, including its solution, long-run convergence behavior, and performance guarantee compared to the long-term discounted revenue of the optimal pricing policy. Furthermore, we establish the structural properties of the optimal pricing policy. When consumers are loss-neutral towards all products, we explicitly characterize the optimal pricing policy if it converges to a steady state, and based on our characterization we show that the steady state price can be computed efficiently by a binary search. Interestingly, we find that such a convergence behavior of the optimal pricing policy heavily relies on the upper bound of the admissible price range, and a low price upper bound facilitates the policy to converge. In contrast, when consumers are gain-seeking towards all products, we prove that the optimal pricing policy admits no steady state regardless of the price range. Nevertheless, if consumers are only gain-seeking towards certain but not all products, the optimal pricing policy can potentially be convergent. In addition, our numerical experiments show that loss-aversion over all products does not rule out price fluctuations. This finding is at odds with the classic belief on loss-averse consumers and hence, highlights the significance of accounting for cross-product effects through the MNL demand.

Mathematical and Computational Models for Congestion Charging

Mathematical and Computational Models for Congestion Charging PDF Author: Siriphong Lawphongpanich
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 038729645X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Rigorous treatments of issues related to congestion pricing are described in this book. It examines recent advances in areas such as mathematical and computational models for predicting traffic congestion, determining when, where, and how much to levy tolls, and analyzing the impact on transportation systems. The book follows recent schemes judged to be successful in London, Singapore, Norway, as well as a number of projects in the United States.

Dynamic Pricing Implications of Uncertainity about Demand

Dynamic Pricing Implications of Uncertainity about Demand PDF Author: Eric Gordon Wruck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Prices
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description


On the (Surprising) Sufficiency of Linear Models for Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning

On the (Surprising) Sufficiency of Linear Models for Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning PDF Author: Omar Besbes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
We consider a multi-period single product pricing problem with an unknown demand curve. The seller's objective is to adjust prices in each period so as to maximize cumulative expected revenues over a given finite time horizon; in doing so, the seller needs to resolve the tension between learning the unknown demand curve and maximizing earned revenues. The main question that we investigate is the following: how large of a revenue loss is incurred if the seller uses a simple parametric model which differs significantly (i.e., is misspecified) relative to the underlying demand curve. This "price of misspecification'' is expected to be significant if the parametric model is overly restrictive. Somewhat surprisingly, we show (under reasonably general conditions) that this may not be the case.

Supermodularity and Complementarity

Supermodularity and Complementarity PDF Author: Donald M. Topkis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140082253X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
The economics literature is replete with examples of monotone comparative statics; that is, scenarios where optimal decisions or equilibria in a parameterized collection of models vary monotonically with the parameter. Most of these examples are manifestations of complementarity, with a common explicit or implicit theoretical basis in properties of a super-modular function on a lattice. Supermodular functions yield a characterization for complementarity and extend the notion of complementarity to a general setting that is a natural mathematical context for studying complementarity and monotone comparative statics. Concepts and results related to supermodularity and monotone comparative statics constitute a new and important formal step in the long line of economics literature on complementarity. This monograph links complementarity to powerful concepts and results involving supermodular functions on lattices and focuses on analyses and issues related to monotone comparative statics. Don Topkis, who is known for his seminal contributions to this area, here presents a self-contained and up-to-date view of this field, including many new results, to scholars interested in economic theory and its applications as well as to those in related disciplines. The emphasis is on methodology. The book systematically develops a comprehensive, integrated theory pertaining to supermodularity, complementarity, and monotone comparative statics. It then applies that theory in the analysis of many diverse economic models formulated as decision problems, noncooperative games, and cooperative games.

Dynamic Pricing Implications of Uncertainty about Demand

Dynamic Pricing Implications of Uncertainty about Demand PDF Author: Eric Gordon Wruck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : New products
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description