We revisit the prevailing wisdom that a profit-maximizing monopolist using linear pricing cannot produce socially efficient output. We show that when market demand function exhibits a flat portion, the prevailing wisdom may not be true. Such a “midway landing” in demand is consistent with weakly convex preferences, and many general demand functions such as any polynomials of degree three and higher. Thus, our analysis demonstrates that the output distortion resulting from linear pricing by a profit-maximizing monopolist is demand specific. In general, neither monopoly per se nor linear pricing is the main reason for social inefficiency.

中文翻译：

---

在线性定价的情况下，利润最大化的垄断产出是否具有社会效率？

我们重新审视流行的智慧，即使用线性定价的利润最大化垄断者无法产生社会有效的产出。我们表明，当市场需求函数呈现平坦部分时，流行的智慧可能不正确。这种需求的“中途着陆”与弱凸偏好和许多一般需求函数（例如任何三阶或更高阶的多项式）一致。因此，我们的分析表明，利润最大化垄断者的线性定价导致的产出扭曲是特定于需求的。一般来说，垄断本身和线性定价都不是社会效率低下的主要原因。