This paper examines a common assertion that customers in reward programs become "locked in" as they accumulate credits toward earning a reward. We define a measure of switching costs and use a dynamic structural model of demand in a reward program to illustrate that frequent customers' purchase...

Do switching costs reduce or intensify price competition in markets where firms charge the same price to old and new consumers? The answer is theoretically ambiguous because a firm prefers to charge a higher price to previous purchasers who are "locked-in" and a lower price to unattached...