Multi-Period Pricing for Perishable Products

The pricing problem in a multi-period setting is a challenging problem and has attracted much attention in recent years. In this book, we consider a monopoly and an oligopoly pricing problem. The products are assumed to be differentiated and substitutable. Each seller has the option to set prices for her products at each time period, and her goal is to find a pricing policy that will yield the maximum overall profit. In this book, we address both the uncertain and the competitive aspect of the problem. First, we study the uncertain aspect of the problem in a simplified setting, where there is only one seller and two periods in the model. We use ideas of robust optimization, adjustable robust optimization, dynamic programming and stochastic optimization to find adaptable closed loop pricing policies. Second, we extend the model to a multi- period setting, where the computation becomes a major issue. Finally, we consider the pricing problem in an oligopoly setting. We show the existence of solution for both the best response subproblem and the market equilibrium problem.

Autorentext

Dr. Lei Zhang: BSc and MSc at the University of Sydney. PhD in Medical Science at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Also research/study at Bar Ilan University, Israel and University of Applied Science, Hamburg. Current postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.