The traditional payment system between an insurer and providers does not incentivize providers to limit their prices nor patients to choose less expensive providers, hence contributing to high insurer expenditures. Reference pricing has been proposed as a way to better align incentives and...

We study a two-stage supply chain, where the supplier procures a key component to manufacture a product and the retailer orders from the supplier to meet a price-sensitive demand. As the input price is volatile, the two parties enter into either a spot contract, where the retailer orders just...