This dissertation is about second-degree price discrimination in oligopoly. The first two chapters are theoretical investigations of a specific intertemporal duopoly pricing problem. The third chapter is empirical, it investigates the classic nonlinear pricing problem under oligopoly.;The first two chapters have a lot in common. They both consider a two-stage game between two firms that are facing consumers with time-varying preferences. The problem of the firms is to determine the optimal contracts, given the nature of consumer preferences. In the first model, consumption occurs only once, while in the second, it occurs in both stages. The first model could be interpreted as one about advance (ex-ante) and spot (ex-post) pricing. The second model could be viewed as one about long-term (ex-ante) and short-term (ex-post) contracts. The main conclusions are nevertheless, the same. The nature of the equilibrium depends on the magnitude of the uncertainty in consumers' tastes. For small levels of uncertainty, the equilibrium involves only spot prices (Model 1) or short-term contracts (Model 2). For large levels of uncertainty, the equilibrium involves only advance prices (Model 1) or long-term contracts (Model 2) For medium levels of uncertainty, the equilibrium involves both kind of prices (Model 1) or both kinds of contracts (Model 2). Therefore, the existence of advance markets or long-term contracts does not matter when the uncertainty is small, but it has important welfare consequences when the uncertainty is large.;In the third chapter, I develop a structural oligopoly model with nonlinear pricing. I estimate the model using data from the US wireless phone service industry. The structural parameter estimates are used to forecast the effects of policy alternatives. I measure the welfare consequences of nonlinear pricing by comparing the actual outcome to a regime where firms are required to post two-part tariffs. The conclusion is that, similarly to the classic monopoly models, nonlinear pricing helps firms to extract more profits, while it hurts consumers.
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