Although some firms use dynamic pricing to respond to demand fluctuations, other firms claim that fairness concerns prevent them from raising prices during periods when demand exceeds capacity. This paper explores conditions in which fairness concerns can or cannot cause shortages. In our model, a firm announces a price policy that states its prices during high and low demand, and customers must travel to a venue to learn the current price. We show that the interaction of fairness concerns with travel costs can cause the firm to set stable prices, which leads to shortages during high demand. However, if the firm is able to inform customers about the current price before they incur any travel costs, then dynamic pricing with no shortages is optimal even with strong fairness concerns.

中文翻译：

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具有公平性和容量限制的动态定价

尽管有些公司使用动态定价来应对需求波动，但其他公司则声称，出于公平考虑，他们无法在需求超过容量的时期提价。本文探讨了公平问题可能会导致短缺或不会造成短缺的条件。在我们的模型中，公司宣布了一项价格政策，规定了在高需求和低需求期间的价格，并且客户必须前往某个场所以了解当前价格。我们表明，公平问题与差旅成本的相互作用会导致公司设定稳定的价格，从而导致高需求期间的短缺。但是，如果公司能够在客户承担任何差旅成本之前通知其当前价格，那么即使存在强烈的公平性问题，也不会有短缺的动态定价是最佳的。