Sharing the Price: Subscription Sharing and Monopoly profits
Abstract: This paper studies the profitability of subscription sharing for a monopolist and shows that it depends on how users divide the subscription price. Sharing affects demand by reducing elasticity and by changing demand levels through offsetting forces, as some consumers substitute toward shared subscriptions while others enter through sharing. Under equitable sharing, where users split the price equally, sharing is never profit-enhancing because a single price cannot target both individuals and pairs. By contrast, under proportional sharing, where users split the price according to their valuations, sharing can increase profits when enough people share. Welfare effects are non-monotonic.

Presented at WIPE (2026).

Assignment game and information acquisition