Empirical studies exploring the relationship between competition and price discrimination don’t generally consider the role of product differentiation or the asymmetric adoption of discrimination across firms. Using a customized empirical approach to examine the use of Saturday-night stayover discounts in the U.S. airline industry, I show that discounts are used more often when facing competitors that offer differentiated products but less often when competing with firms that don’t use discounts. Legacy carriers rarely use discounts when competing with Southwest or other low-cost carriers, but the presence of competing legacy carriers sometimes enhances the use of discounts.

探索竞争与价格歧视之间关系的实证研究通常不考虑产品差异化的作用或跨公司不对称采用歧视。使用定制的实证方法来检查美国航空业周六晚过夜折扣的使用情况，我表明，当面对提供差异化​​产品的竞争对手时，折扣更频繁地使用，而与不使用折扣的公司竞争时，则更少使用折扣。传统航空公司在与西南航空公司或其他低成本航空公司竞争时很少使用折扣，但竞争传统航空公司的存在有时会增强折扣的使用。