We have developed a set of interatomic pair potentials for cadmium selenide based on a form similar to the Born-Mayer model. We show that this simple form of the pair potential, which has been used to describe the properties of alkali halides in the sixfold-coordinate structure, provides a realistic description of the properties of cadmium selenide in all three crystal structures: wurtzite, zinc blende, and rocksalt. Using the new pair potential we have studied the pressure-induced phase transition from the fourfold-coordinate wurtzite structure to the sixfold-coordinate rocksalt structure. The pressure transformation and the equation of state are in good agreement with experimental observations. Using the dispersion term in our pair potential we have also calculated the Hamaker constant for cadmium selenide within the framework of the original microscopic approach due to Hamaker. The results indicate that for ionic materials many-body terms that are included in the Lifshitz theory are well captured by the simple pair potential.