Page "Monopoly" Paragraph 55

Improved price discrimination allows a monopolist to gain more profit by charging more to those who want or need the product more or who have a greater ability to pay.

For example, most economic textbooks cost more in the United States than in " Third world countries " like Ethiopia.

In this case, the publisher is using their government granted copyright monopoly to price discriminate between ( presumed ) wealthier economics students and ( presumed ) poor economics students.

Similarly, most patented medications cost more in the U. S. than in other countries with a ( presumed ) poorer customer base.

Perfect price discrimination would allow the monopolist to a unique price to each customer based on his or her individual demand.

This would allow the monopolist to extract all the consumer surplus of the market.

Note that while such perfect price discrimination is still a theoretical construct, it is becoming increasingly real with advances of information technology and micromarketing.

Typically, a high general price is listed, and various market segments get varying discounts.

This is an example of framing to make the process of charging some people higher prices more socially acceptable.