Working Paper（26-020E）Common Ownership and Intertemporal Price Discrimination

This paper considers the effects of common ownership on advance purchase markets featuring intertemporal price discrimination (e.g. airline tickets). Common ownership increases advance prices, while spot prices can decrease. We show that common ownership is anticompetitive but the increase in average transacted prices is smaller than under uniform pricing, although consumers shift towards more informed, more expensive purchases. Common ownership is less detrimental for consumers than under uniform pricing and can even benefit consumers when consumers are sufficiently uninformed about their preferences in advance.

JEL classification: D43, D82, L13, L41.

Keywords: Common ownership; intertemporal price discrimination; advance selling; consumer learning.