Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Barbie doll pricing for printers

Planet Money (Feb. 2021) describes how companies charge low prices for printers to sell high-price ink and make substituting third-party ink difficult.

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Is this an example of 1st degree price discrimination?

"When a woman gets a caesarean section at the gleaming new Van Ness location of Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center, the price might be $6,241. Or $29,257. Or $38,264. It could even go as high as $60,584.

"The rate the hospital charges depends on the insurance plan covering the birth. At the bottom end of the scale is a local health plan that serves largely Medicaid recipients. At the top are prices for women whose plans don’t have the San Francisco hospital in their insurers’ network" (WSJ, Feb. 2021).