Switching Energy Suppliers: It’s Not All About the Money

David Deller, Monica Giulietti, Graham Loomes, Catherine Waddams Price, Ana Moniche Bermejo, Joo Young Jeon

Research output: Working paper

Abstract

Liberalised retail energy markets present an apparent puzzle: when offered the chance to buy a homogeneous product at a lower price, many consumers appear to leave ‘money on the table’. We observe the decisions made by over 7,000 consumers in a collective switching exercise and find that seemingly suboptimal consumer behaviour may be understood better if a sufficiently rich range of non-monetary ‘switching costs’ are identified. We discuss some policy implications for the expectations of consumer response in designing and regulating markets.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherCentre for Competition Policy
Number of pages26
Publication statusPublished - 21 Aug 2017

Publication series

NameCCP Working Papers
No.17-5

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