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Methodology of Assessing the Costs of Social Welfare for the Antimonopoly Control

The Price Discrimination on the Shortage Markets: Theoretical Analysis

Antitrust law includes a number of evaluation norms in system of commodity market analysis and proofs of anti-competitive behavior, which provide for using wide range of economics and marketing methods. The widest field of discussing embedded in definition “price discrimination”. Specific research interest presents the making recommendations of regulation of shortage markets with unfounded differences in prices. This question we propose to consider in two articles: in first article we make theoretical analysis of price discrimination in situation of shortage markets, in second article (will be published in no. 4) we analyze marketing aspects and system of sales stimulation, which the seller accomplish on the shortage markets. In the focus of this research is price discrimination as a market mechanism and shortage markets as a market anomaly. The shortage markets in contrast of shortage on the market occurs not for reason that price is below the equilibrium level. The main reason of genesis of shortage markets is speculative demand on the markets and/or difficulties in producing goods and services. These difficulties often set by outside shocks. Price discrimination undergoing of effect of long-run shortage on markets transforming in phenomenon, which damages of consumer wealth and entrepreneurs benefits. In addition, this type of price discrimination decrease the social welfare too. The risks of price discrimination in the case of shortage markets needed new decisions and methods of regulation by state. However now we do not see some consensus in the issue of principles and instruments of state regulation of shortage markets. In the article we try to approbate some scientific results. These results are the hybrid definition of price discrimination; the legislative definitions of price discrimination as a acts which limiting competition; the criteria of functioning of shortage markets; proofs of transforming markets through the impact of long-run shortage; the difference between the case of shortage markets and the case of shortage on the markets in the classical demand-supply model; costs of price discrimination on the shortage markets; perspective antitrust regulation of price discrimination on the shortage markets. Read more...

Implementation of a Discount Policy the Shortage B2B Markets: a Marketing Ploy or Price Discrimination?

Modern research of B2B markets focuses on various aspects of information and economic interaction of market participants, but most often the features of marketing strategies in the field of promoting goods / services and building marketing communications are analyzed in order to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The issues of effective pricing and the implementation of discount policy as a tool to stimulate sales in B2B markets have not been practically studied. The variability in the application of seller pricing policy instruments in B2B markets under conditions of a limited number of buyers can have a significant impact on the intensity of competition in the market and, as a consequence, lead to a change in the market structure, its transformation and loss of balance. Therefore, the pricing system in non-equilibrium, in particular, shortage markets, in which the inefficient use of discount mechanisms by sellers can take the form of price discrimination of buyers due to the increased market power of the seller, is of considerable scientific and practical interest. This article, being a continuation of the discourse started by the authors on price discrimination in scarce markets, published in No. 3 of the journal Modern Competition, and is devoted to the study of the feasibility of using discounts in equilibrium and scarce B2B markets. At the end of the series of articles on price discrimination in scarce markets [1], the authors intend to publish a third article, which will examine the case of a shortage solid-rolled wheel market in Russia in 2018-2019 from the standpoint of assessing the feasibility of preserving discount programs for certain categories of buyers in the specified oligopolistic B2B market. Read more...

The Phenomenon of Bargaining Power on the Competitive Product Markets

The emergence of network retailers and corporate associative structures in some industries, which became the largest buyers or initiators of market processes, began to form the buyer’s market power or bargaining power of the buyer that became the object of a broader study and confirmed its relevance. The realization of bargaining power on the part of the consumer does not always manifest itself in the system of economic interactions as an action that violates competition, but often is identified as a mechanism of business strategies or a form of implementation of marketing competitive practices. There are types of markets and market situations in which bargaining power is essentially the central link of the transaction, regulating prices, volumes, contract terms and distribution of benefits. The purpose of the study is to consider the phenomenon of bargaining power, since the consequences of its manifestations form long-term losses for both the seller and the market as a whole. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve several tasks: to conduct a theoretical analysis of the concept of “bargaining power”, to determine the difference between bargaining power and market power and to identify factors affecting the formation and development of bargaining power. This article focuses on the study of the evolution of theoretical thought in the field of disclosure of the phenomenon of bargaining power. Foreign sources give some understanding of the subject of bargaining power, but the question of factors, research schools and evaluation indicators still remains open. Based on the available bibliographic content, the article presents a comprehensive analysis of the category of “bargaining power” in various conditions of interaction of agents, the established scientific directions of its study. The systematized factors influencing the negotiating power and the vectors of their impact reflect the accumulated author’s opinion of different research views. The article reflects the criteria characteristics of the manifestation of bargaining power in the market. Understanding the essence of the phenomenon under study can be useful for expanding the field of market analysis in cases of antimonopoly proceedings, preventing anticompetitive actions, forming an antimonopoly compliance system and preventing antimonopoly risks. Read more...

The Possibility and Expediency of Marketing Variability in the Conditions of a Scarce Market (the Case of the Market of Solid-rolled Wheels-957)

The relevance of the study is due to the need to study the limits of the permissibility of business behavior of companies in the conditions of economic turbulence that has developed under the influence of various macro and microfactors. The disruption of logistics chains against the background of the first sanctions restrictions, the introduction of protective duties, a comprehensive system of state support for the industry (the “trade-in” program for changing the car fleet) led to new structural and behavioral models of the functioning of markets, which required understanding and selection of an adequate policy of state regulation. The purpose of the study is to consider the strategy of behavior of the dominant player with a pronounced differentiation in pricing policy in relation to different counterparties in a scarce market on the example of an antimonopoly case against a dominant economic entity in the market of solid-rolled wheels with a diameter of 957 mm within the borders of the Russian Federation (2018–2019). The objectives of the study are to consider how the implementation of three important elements of the company’s marketing strategies – price formation, market segmentation based on the Buchanan product concept and the selection of counterparties, as well as methods and technologies of discount policy in conditions of unsatisfied demand, can affect the functioning of a scarce market and affect price growth for two years. In the context of this study, the transformation of the mechanism of price discrimination in scarce markets is presented. It is noted that the behavior of the dominant entity regarding the establishment of a monopolistically high price in a scarce market looks economically unconditioned, the establishment of a differentiated final price for the sale of goods to various buyers at a level higher than the prices of the period preceding the shortage indicates price discrimination of the first and second degree. The analysis of various types of discounts shows that sales promotion is not a necessary marketing tool, as it reduces the monopoly profit of the seller and does not contain motivation for the formation of competitive initiations. The main gain of the consumer is not the volume of potential discounts, but the speed of searching for goods, contracting on any terms, the promptness of concluding transactions and obtaining maximum financial gain in conditions of uncertainty. Read more...