The American Economic Association Dues Structure

Abstract

Because consumers have an incentive to misrepresent their incomes and accurate information about consumers' incomes is costly for sellers to obtain, income-based pricing of goods or services seems unlikely to survive for long. Indeed, income-based pricing is extremely rare. However, the American Economic Association's dues structure in which members voluntarily pay dues according to income has survived for twenty years. The authors’ survey results reveal that while some ‘cheating’ does occur, there is substantial compliance with the income-based dues structure. They offer several explanations for their findings.