Competing providers as complements: Demand for prepaid mobile plans in Burkina Faso Job Market Paper

Prepaid pay-as-you-go plans are widely used worldwide and are especially popular in emerging countries. The literature highlights that the contract flexibility associated with this type of plan, the off-net service overcharges, and recurring provider price discounts make it interesting for consumers to subscribe to multiple providers. However, this joint consumption contrasts with the exclusivity expected when products are supplied by competing firms. This paper assesses the extent to which competing providers of prepaid plans are substitutes, using a sample of subscribers from Burkina Faso. I document in Burkina Faso patterns of joint consumption similar to those reported by the literature. I find that it is common for consumers to own multiple providers. And, conditional on owning multiple providers, consumers in my sample spread the services they use across their providers. I propose a discrete-continuous choice model to formalize provider selection and service usage levels. This model allows for flexible estimation of substitutability or complementarity between providers and the services offered by the same provider. My results show that internet and communication services (voice and text) from the same provider are Hicksian substitutes. Also, consumers derive heterogeneous gains from owning multiple providers, depending on the set of providers they subscribe to and their demographics. Finally, I find that the two most popular providers are complements in the discrete dimension. This means an increase in the price of one is related to a decrease in the subscription probability of the other.

Presented at: Women in Econometrics Conference (Poster, 2026) · Congrès SCSE (2026)· CIREQ PhD students'conference (2026) · Competition Bureau of Canada (Invited Seminar, 2025) · Association des femmes scientifiques africaines (2025)

Estimation of demand with decreasing block pricing and market-level data

Draft

Discrete-continuous choice models (DCC) are commonly used to estimate demand for products with decreasing/increasing block rates. Standard estimation methods for DCC models require individual-level consumption data, which is not always readily available. Using the pure characteristics model of Berry and Pakes (2007), I propose a discrete-continuous choice model to estimate demand for products with block rates. The idea is to use block market shares and characteristics to recover consumers' preferences. I apply this method to estimate demand for natural gas in Quebec. This paper also proposes new instruments inspired by the interesting institutional background. I found conditional and unconditional price elasticities close to previous estimates in the literature.

Presented at: Competition Bureau of Canada (Invited Seminar, 2025) · Congrès SCSE (2025) · CIREQ Econometric Conference (Poster, 2025) · CESG Annual Meeting (Poster, 2024)