Saturday, September 09, 2006

Out of Context Quote, Small Sample Size

by Ken Houghton

"Rapid price changes lead to economic inefficiency." - Samuelson and Nordhaus, 16th ed., p. 373

TOS currently: $139.99 (though I believe it's $44.99 per season in the stores).

Original pricing from late 2004:

Season 1: $106.99
Season 2: $106.99
Season 3: $ 99.99

Memory serving, the set was offered last Xmas for around $270. BestBuy now lists it for $179.99.

Does this count as deflation?

By the way, the best Star Trek series is coming out for Thanksgiving.
Comments:
Does this count as deflation?

Price discrimination is the best answer, but the mechanism would show up as a CPI price decline were TOS a sample good.

Totally out of context, of course, but price discrimination is usually considered efficiency-increasing (as long as you don't mind the seller capturing the economic surplus).
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?