It is a very classical topic in the Microeconomics part, also involved Industrial Economics etc.

Definition 1

A firm price discriminates when it charges different prices to different people, or different prices for different units of output, in ways that are not cost-related


There are three different forms of the Price Discrimination.

  • **First degree (or perfect) price discrimination (1DPD)
    • Sell individual packages to each consumer that fully extract all surplus.
    • Relies on knowing the demand of each consumer.
  • **Second degree price discrimination (2DPD)
    • Offer a menu of (price, quantity) bundles from which consumers can self-select.
    • Does not rely on knowing type of each consumer, but must know demand function of each type.
  • **Third-Degree Price Discrimination (3DPD)
    • Different linear prices to different types of consumers which the firm can identify.
    • Relies on knowing the type of each consumer.

Definition 2

First-Degree Price Discrimination Example