Liberalization of a retail electricity market: Consumer satisfaction and household switching behavior in Japan
Liberalization of a retail electricity market: Consumer satisfaction and household switching behavior in Japan
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零售电力市场的自由化：日本的消费者满意度和家庭转换行为
DOI：
10.1016/j.enpol.2017.07.048
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
9
通讯作者：
Managi Shunsuke
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shin Kong Joo;Managi Shunsuke
政策制定者通过放松管制的改革来追求开放市场，因为他们相信这样做可以提高经济效率，并主要通过降低价格为消费者带来好处。然而，竞争优于受管制的垄断并不成立。在一个自由化的市场中，消费者行使其选择公用事业供应商的能力是影响放松管制改革成果的一个关键途径。虽然实现高转换率不是市场改革的最终目标，但这是消费者从政策形式中获益的一个重要工具。我们使用最近自由化前后进行的日本家庭调查的数据，发现自由化对消费者满意度的积极影响，使消费者能够选择电力供应商。这一结果表明，转换可以通过提高客户满意度的效用改善，并强调转换行为的重要性，有效地利用放松管制改革。本研究还探讨了一系列广泛的供应商转换的决定因素，并讨论了实证结果的政策含义。
Policy makers pursue open markets through deregulatory reform based on a belief that they increase economic efficiency and produce benefits for consumers mainly through price reductions. However, the superiority of competition over regulated monopolies is not established. In a liberalized market, consumers exercising their ability to choose a utility provider is a crucial way of shaping the outcomes of deregulatory reform. While achieving a high switching rate is not the ultimate goal of market reform, it is an important tool through which consumers gain from policy form. We use data from a Japanese household survey conducted before and after recent liberalization and find a positive impact of liberalization on consumer satisfaction by enabling consumers to choose an electricity provider. This result indicates that switching can be utility improving by increasing customer satisfaction and underlines the importance of switching behavior in effectively utilizing deregulatory reform. This study also examines a broad set of determinants of provider switching and discusses the policy implications of the empirical results.