eprintid: 17322 rev_number: 25 eprint_status: archive userid: 600 dir: disk0/00/01/73/22 datestamp: 2009-10-21 14:52:47 lastmod: 2015-07-23 09:37:35 status_changed: 2009-10-21 14:52:47 type: article metadata_visibility: show item_issues_count: 0 creators_name: Eliaz, K. creators_name: Spiegler, R. creators_id: creators_id: RSPIE69 title: Consumer optimism and price discrimination ispublished: pub subjects: 12000 divisions: F24 keywords: Contracts, speculative trade, screening, non-common priors, mechanism-design, optimism, three-part tariffs note: Copyright 2008 Kfir Eliaz and Ran Spiegler. Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial License 3.0 abstract: We study monopolistic design of a menu of non-linear tariffs when consumers have biased prior beliefs regarding their future preferences. In our model, consumers are "optimistic'' if their prior belief assigns too much weight to states of nature characterized by large gains from trade. A consumer's degree of optimism is his private information, and the monopolist employs the menu of non-linear tariffs to screen it. We characterize the optimal menu and show that the existence of non-common priors has significant qualitative implications for price discrimination and ex-post inefficiency. Finally, the characterization enables us to interpret aspects of real-life menus of non-linear tariffs. date: 2008-12 official_url: http://econtheory.org/ojs/index.php/te/article/view/20080459 vfaculties: VSHS oa_status: green language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green lyricists_name: Spiegler, R lyricists_id: RSPIE69 full_text_status: public publication: Theoretical Economics volume: 3 number: 4 pagerange: 459-497 refereed: TRUE issn: 1555-7561 citation: Eliaz, K.; Spiegler, R.; (2008) Consumer optimism and price discrimination. Theoretical Economics , 3 (4) pp. 459-497. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/17322/1/17322.pdf