Switching Energy Suppliers: It's Not All about the Money

26 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2017

See all articles by David Deller

David Deller

Centre for Competition Policy

Monica Giulietti

Loughborough University

Graham Loomes

University of Warwick

Catherine Waddams Price

University of East Anglia (UEA) - School of Management

Ana Moniche Bermejo

Universidad de Malaga

Joo Young Jeon

University of Reading

Date Written: August 21, 2017

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.

Keywords: Retail Energy Market, Switching Suppliers, Probit Models, Behavioural Consumers

JEL Classification: D12, D83, C25, C26, L94, L95

Suggested Citation

Deller, David and Giulietti, Monica and Loomes, Graham and Price, Catherine Waddams and Moniche Bermejo, Ana and Jeon, Joo Young, Switching Energy Suppliers: It's Not All about the Money (August 21, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3024534 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3024534

David Deller (Contact Author)

Centre for Competition Policy ( email )

University of East Anglia
Norwich Research Park
Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom

Monica Giulietti

Loughborough University ( email )

Ashby Road
Nottingham NG1 4BU
Great Britain

Graham Loomes

University of Warwick ( email )

Gibbet Hill Rd.
Coventry, West Midlands CV4 8UW
United Kingdom

Catherine Waddams Price

University of East Anglia (UEA) - School of Management ( email )

Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom

Ana Moniche Bermejo

Universidad de Malaga ( email )

Málaga
Spain

Joo Young Jeon

University of Reading ( email )

Whiteknights
Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH
United Kingdom

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