Do consumers switch to the best supplier?
Do consumers switch to the best supplier?
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消费者会转向最好的供应商吗？
DOI：
10.1093/oep/gpq006
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Wilson C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wilson C
本文论证了即使在一个相对简单和透明的市场中，消费者选择最佳替代供应商的能力也是有限的。从英国电力市场的两个独立数据集来看，我们发现，总的来说，那些完全出于价格原因而转换的消费者侵占了不到一半的可用收益。虽然这种结果可以用高搜索成本来解释，但观察到至少17%的消费者实际上因为转换而减少了他们的盈余，这一观察结果无法解释。我们排除了对错误需求预测的解释，并测试了包括不当销售在内的其他解释。
This paper demonstrates that the ability of consumers to choose the best alternative supplier is limited even in a relatively simple and transparent market. Across two independent datasets from the UK electricity market we find, on aggregate, that those consumers switching exclusively for price reasons appropriated less than a half of the gains available. While such outcomes can be explained by high search costs, the observation that at least 17% of consumers actually reduced their surplus as a result of switching cannot. We rule out an explanation of incorrect demand prediction, and test for others including mis-selling.