First, you don't get to choose your signalling. Anyone can double their prices and put a sign in the door, why would the public trust that? More importantly,

First, you don't get to choose your signalling. Anyone can double their prices and put a sign in the door, why would the public trust that? More importantly, if you raise prices to lower demand, the public will accurately see that as lowered demand. If you're nothing special at a doubled price, then you're nothing special. I'll admit though, I think Becker is mostly wrong here. One reason restaurants don't triple their prices to clear excess is fear that the public would call it "gouging" and react extremely negatively, thus eliminating any chance of long-term success. Also, there's a huge difference between a hot new restaurant and the restaurant that has lines out the door every day for years, a difference Becker ignores. I find a lot of "popular" Becker is like this, especially the famed work on discrimination. Brilliant math, genuine insights, but skips over essential variables when reaching his conclusions, making the final result dubious.