Title: Data Collection, Personalized Pricing and Enterprise Innovation

Speaker: Yin Zhendong, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics. His research fields are industrial economics and public economics. He has published many papers in important journals such as Economic Research Journal, China Economic Quarterly, China Industrial Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization and Journal of Public Economic Theory. His research results have won the Shandong Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award, the Jiangxi Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and the National Excellent Financial Theory Research Achievement Award. He serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Economics Review and Editor of National Economic Management (Renmin University's Copy Materials), as well as a Director of the Chinese Society of Industrial Economics, the Chinese Society of Information Economics and the Organizational Economics Seminar.

Abstract: In the era of digital economy, enterprises collect a large amount of consumer data to implement personalized pricing, which changes the income of innovative products and is bound to have an important impact on enterprise innovation. This paper constructs a theoretical model to study the micro-mechanism of personalized pricing affecting enterprise innovation and the welfare of all parties, and deduces the optimal policy for the government to regulate price discrimination. The research finds that compared with uniform pricing, personalized pricing enhances enterprises' innovation incentives; as the cost of data collection decreases, the level of innovation increases, corporate profits decrease, consumer surplus increases, and social welfare first decreases and then increases; when the cost of data collection is relatively high, prohibiting personalized pricing will increase corporate profits and consumer welfare, achieving a "win-win" result; with the progress of digital technology, the cost of data collection gradually decreases, and the government should be more inclined to allow personalized pricing. This paper helps to more comprehensively understand the welfare effects and innovation logic of personalized pricing in the era of digital economy, and provides theoretical guidance for the government to formulate regulatory policies that balance consumer welfare and enterprise innovation.

Date & time: 22 May 2025, 14:30

Venue: B321, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University