Power to Choose? An Analysis of Consumer Inertia in the Residential Electricity Market
Power to Choose? An Analysis of Consumer Inertia in the Residential Electricity Market
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DOI：
10.1257/pol.20150235
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发表时间：
2017-11-01
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Puller, Steven L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hortacsu, Ali;Madanizadeh, Seyed Ali;Puller, Steven L.
世界各地的许多司法管辖区已经解除了对公用事业的管制，并开放零售市场进行竞争。然而，惯性决策可能会减少零售竞争的消费者利益。使用家庭层面的数据从得克萨斯州的住宅电力市场，我们的消费者惯性的证据。我们估计一个计量经济学模型的零售选择来衡量两个来源的惯性：搜索摩擦/疏忽和品牌优势，消费者负担得起的现任者。我们发现，家庭很少寻找替代零售商，当他们这样做搜索，家庭重视品牌优势的现任。反事实实验表明，低成本的信息干预能够显著增加消费者剩余。
Many jurisdictions around the world have deregulated utilities and opened retail markets to competition. However, inertial decision making can diminish consumer benefits of retail competition. Using household-level data from the Texas residential electricity market, we document evidence of consumer inertia. We estimate an econometric model of retail choice to measure two sources of inertia: search frictions/inattention and a brand advantage that consumers afford the incumbent. We find that households rarely search for alternative retailers, and when they do search, households attach a brand advantage to the incumbent. Counterfactual experiments show that low-cost information interventions can notably increase consumer surplus.