A Reconsideration of Full-cost Pricing: Methodological Aspects of Marginalism and Theoretical Explanations of Pricing Behaviour

The wide use of full-cost pricing techniques remains an explanandum in both economics and management accounting theory. This work surveys and develops possible theoretical explanations of this industrial pricing behaviour and analyses some of its implications. By recognition of the widespread use of imperfect cost-plus pricing heuristics, observable pricing behaviour, as well as empirical market-level phenomena, can be explained. Furthermore, methodological aspects of marginalist price theory are discussed and brought into connection with the meager contemporary interest of most economists in the important phenomenon of full-cost pricing.