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ID: 192733

Combined effect of regulators’ and retailers’ actions to stimulate consumer participation in retail energy markets / Hester M. Huisman

Hester M. Huisman	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Active consumer participation in retail markets is crucial for an affordable and sustainable energy transition. While energy regulators encourage active consumer participation through policies which decrease consumers’ switching costs, energy retailers seek to advance customer retention to boost profits. This study investigates how these seemingly opposing goals influence consumer participation in energy retail markets. Using data on the Dutch energy markets, we combine micro-economic and marketing insights through a retailer-aggregated panel vector auto-regression (VAR) model and a market-level VAR to analyse the dynamic interactions. The results indicate that the regulator affects consumer participation both directly and indirectly through energy retailers’ actions. We conclude that energy retailers’ acquisition and retention actions do not counteract the regulator’s efforts to increase active consumer participation. While retention actions lead to decreased switching behaviour, they concurrently decrease perceived switch costs while increasing search behaviour and the consideration to switch. Therefore, retention actions may still improve consumer welfare. Our research reveals mediating relations that require comprehensive examination of the overall impacts of regulatory policies and energy retailer’s actions.

Key Words

Energy Transition ; Switching Costs ; Consumer Participation ; Regulation of retail markets ; Energy retailers

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ID: 103948

Contracting and efficiency in the surgical goods cluster of Sia / Chaudhry, Theresa Thompson

Chaudhry, Theresa Thompson	Journal Article
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2011.

Summary/Abstract

This article provides empirical evidence of the inefficiency of contracting institutions (measured by high switching costs) among surgical instrument producers in Sialkot, Pakistan, even though it is an industrial cluster where manufacturers have access to a multiplicity of suppliers. Following the methodology of Johnson, McMillan and Woodruff (2002), we found that nearly 50 per cent of firms in the sample would reject an untried supplier offering a lower price. The decision to reject a prospective new supplier offering a 10 per cent discount was positively related to the complexity of the input and measures of relational contracting, and negatively related to a belief in informal contract enforcement mechanisms. Firms were more likely to switch to the prospective discount supplier when they were introduced through a business network. Belief in formal contract enforcement was not significant in any of the regressions.

Key Words

Law and Economics ; Agglomeration ; Relational Contracting ; Switching Costs ; Pakistan - 1967-1977

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