Perishable Good Dynamic Pricing Under Competition : An Empirical Study in the Airline Markets

Dynamic pricing is increasingly popular in the perishable good markets, but its effect under competition is uncertain due to the potential for the prisoner's dilemma. I study profit and welfare implications of dynamic pricing techniques in a competitive setting. I construct a structural dynamic oligopoly model where capacitated firms compete in selling differentiated products over a finite horizon when facing demand fluctuations. I estimate the model in U.S. oligopolistic airline markets using an event of carrier exit and flight-level data. I find that (i) the ability to smooth demand fluctuations intensifies competition and benefits consumers substantially; (ii) the ability to price discriminate softens competition and allows firms to extract a substantial amount of consumer surplus