Study On The Tying Of Additional Travel Services

Tying is a common economic phenomenon in life.In the field of industrial organization theory and legal economics,there are many researches on tying behavior,but they all lack special attention to consumer welfare.There are also some interesting tying in transportation.Some tying that harm consumers' welfare,such as the once long-standing tickets and insurance forced tying,still some consumers will continue to choose it today.Some tying activities are beneficial to the welfare of consumers,such as Internet Private Hire Vehicles(IPHV)service and HSR tying.However,many consumers prefer to choose these services through third-party platforms.What's more,such as IPHV tying "award" and train tickets tying "acceleration package",itself does not provide new goods and the few takers at ordinary times,but in a certain time(such as travel peak)it is popular.These phenomena show that,first,the traditional consumer welfare analysis method based on consumer surplus is difficult to explain these new phenomena in the field of transportation,and second,the difference in spatial-time characteristics will also affect consumer travel decision-making behavior.Therefore,we use mental accounting,attache importance to the impact of specific spatial-time factors on consumers' travel decisions,and establishe a non-fungibility theoretical framework of specific spatial-time to study the tying behavior in the field of transportation.The economic evaluation brought by specific spatial-time determines consumer welfare.The non-fungibility theory of specific spatial-time(NFTSST)compares the differences of consumer welfare and explains the travel decision.Based on the analysis of NFTSST,mental accounting is the process by which consumers evaluate economic outcomes and categorize them to maximize satisfaction.Evaluation is the economic evaluation of the differentiation of decision results.According to mental accounting theory,the total utility of consumers' purchase(TUCP)decisions consists of two parts: one is the acquisition effect which is consumer surplus;the other is the transaction effect that is the benefit compared with the reference price or the benefit based on commodity cost pricing.The ratio of the tying TUCP to the total one of separate purchase utility is the rate of non-fungibility,which can be used to analyze consumers' economic evaluation.The consumer economic evaluation of transportation service under different physical information relation is obvious difference,and mental accounting will pursue the better one.The improvement of physical information relation will directly improve the economic evaluation results.The tying improves the physical information relation,changes consumers' economic evaluation,and forms an independent consumer mental accounting.The essential difference of mental accounting is non-fungibility,which has two aspects: technological level and mental level.Thefore,the analysis of tying should pay attention to the non-fungibility of the travel specific spatial-time.Based on the NFTSST,this paper analyzes the consumer welfare of contractual tying,technological tying and mental tying in turn,and conducts the anti-monopoly economic analysis of tying based on the reasonable principle,which can get different results from previous studies.In the case of contractual tying,assuming the total cost of tying is 1,there is a critical price of 1.87 that makes consumers choose to change from pure tying to mixed tying.Meanwhile,the relationship between consumer surplus and TUCP does not change in the same direction.In the case of technological tying,there is a stable Nash equilibrium for one enterprise to invest while the other enterprise does not.Meanwhile,the cooperation of transportation enterprises to open basic services is conducive to the improvement of consumer welfare.Under mental tying,consumers do not only pay attention to the price when they choose the travel service,but the quality of the transportation service in a specific time and space helps to improve the economic evaluation of consumers.Based on the economic analysis of the "reasonable principle" in the process of anti-monopoly examination,combined with the industry characteristics of additional travel services tying,this paper puts forward the "non-fungibility principle of specific spatial-time",and comprehensively analyzes the technological non-fungibility and mental non-fungibility.To sum up,there are four conclusions in this paper:The consumer welfare analysis considering the behavioral factors can study the tying of additional travel services more effectively.Based on the behavioral factors in the decision-making of consumers travel,it combines the theory of mental accounting with tying,and establishes the non-fungibility theoretical framework of specific spatial-time.By analyzing the change results of economic evaluation in the mental accounting of consumers,the author studies tying of additional travel services more specifically.The economic evaluation of two kinds of decision results is non-fungible if it is not stable in a fixed proportion,which is quite different from the concept of fungibility of two kinds of goods with the same or similar functions in microeconomics.According to mental accounting,the TUCP includes two parts: acquisition utility and transaction utility.The analysis method of consumer welfare based on TUCP can explain that the relationship between consumer decision and consumer surplus is not inevitable.Based on TUCP,consumer welfare analysis method of NFTSST can effectively explain the inconsistent paradox,which is imposible by previous method of the consumer surplus analysis: at first,TUCP is don't agree with the increase and decrease rate of the consumer surplus;and the second,travel service open cooperation helps to enhance consumer welfare.The mental tying,which improves the efficiency due to the unification of physical-information relation,promotes consumer welfare and is restricted by negative physical-information relation as well.Based on the analysis of the tying development and combined with many phenomena of tying of additional travel services,the study finds that mental tying is widely found in additional travel services.Through Internet platform,goods are sold in combination with services for more efficient acquisition and use of the goods,that is,mental ting.Mental ting is a competitive strategy for the transportation industry to pursue the unity of matter-credit relationship.On the one hand,it can improve the service quality to increase the current welfare;on the other hand,it will be restricted by the risk of physical-information relation.The antimonopoly economic analysis that may be involved in the tying of additional travel services should consider both technological non-fungibility and mental non-fungibility.Transportation enterprises,which have stronger market power or dominant market position,adopt the strategy of tying will exclude competition or bring market blockade results,factors of travel spatial-time has the important influence to consumer,and antitrust economic analysis for tying of additional travel service should give attention to both technological non-fungibility and mental non-fungibility.The high degree of technological non-fungibility is the direct basis for the existence of monopoly,while the high degree of mental non-fungibility is the reference basis.