Firm Financial Condition and Airline Price Wars

58 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2000

See all articles by Meghan R. Busse

Meghan R. Busse

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 2000

Abstract

If cutting price can trigger a price war, then a firm must weigh present versus future gains and losses when considering such a move. How a firm values such tradeoffs can be affected by its financial situation. Using data on 14 major airlines between 1985 and 1992, this paper tests the hypothesis that firms in worse financial condition are more likely to start price wars. Empirical results suggest that this is true, particularly for highly leveraged firms. The paper also explores which firms join existing price wars, and finds that a firm is more likely to enter a price war when the share of its traffic on routes that are also served by the price war leader is greater.

Keywords: Price wars, airlines, financial constraint, liquidity constraint

JEL Classification: L11, L13, L93

Suggested Citation

Busse, Meghan R., Firm Financial Condition and Airline Price Wars (April 2000). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=237374 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.237374

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