题    目： Price Discrimination and Regulation on a Network: The Case of US Rail Freight Industry

嘉    宾： 杨    津 PhD. Candidate 西北大学

主持人： 喻    洋 副教授 上海交通大学安泰经济与管理学院

时    间：2025年 1月 3日（周五）8:30-10:00

地    点：线上，若需腾讯会议链接请联系sunjin@sjtu.edu.cn

内容简介：
This paper studies price discrimination in rail freight transportation, where shippers facing different prices are also interdependent due to economies of scale across the railroad network. Consequently, even discriminated shippers can benefit from the increased demand among discounted shippers, as it improves scale and decreases costs for all. To assess the full effects of price discrimination under these externalities and contribute to the policy design debate, I develop and estimate a structural model of rail freight markets. Results show that a simple ban on all third-degree price discrimination reduces freight volumes and scale economies, by limiting railroads' ability to target discounts at their most price elastic shippers. In contrast, more tailored policies that permit certain discrimination can preserve quantity while mitigating misallocation. Based on these, I design a recently discussed price benchmark policy that implements reference pricing between small price-taking and large contract-negotiating shippers sharing selective characteristics. This approach both addresses distributional issues and increases total welfare by $500 million per year. My findings suggest that refined regulations distinguishing the sources of different price discrimination may better serve markets with externalities.

演讲人简介：
Jin Yang is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Northwestern University, specializing in empirical industrial organization. His job market paper examines price discrimination in the US rail freight transportation network. His other works study physician allocation post hospital mergers, hassle costs in online auctions, and network effects in early US railroad construction. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego, in 2019.