Reseach on the Logical Mechanism of Price Increasing in the Sharing Economy
Recently,there has been a collective wave of price increases in the field of the sharing economy.There are diverse opinions about whether these price hikes are a normal market behavior or a new round of"harvesting"after the"land grab."To uncover the rationality behind the price increase in the sharing economy,we establish a behavioral strategy evolution game model of three main entities:sharing economy platforms,suppliers,and consumers in order to analyze the evolutionary patterns of the sharing economy system under different pricing strategies and influencing factors.The results indicate that"moderate"price increases and"reasonable"incentives can promote a dual improvement in the quantity and quality of idle resource supply,which is in line with the market law.On the contrary,"immoderate"price increases can lead to a loss in the overall utility for consumers,and the user engagement to idle resources under high prices is not sustainable.The improvement of utility of shared objects,supply-side scale effects,network externalities and matching efficiency can help expanding the"appropriate range"of price increases and platforms can design rational mechanisms through the balance of incentives and penalties,matching capabilities,commission ratios,and subsidy policies to make pricing more close with the market logic.