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.

中文翻译：

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转换能源供应商：不仅仅是钱的问题

自由化的零售能源市场呈现出一个明显的难题：当有机会以更低的价格购买同质产品时，许多消费者似乎“把钱摆在桌面上”。我们观察了 7,000 多名消费者在集体转换练习中做出的决定，发现如果确定了足够丰富的非货币“转换成本”范围，则可以更好地理解看似次优的消费者行为。我们讨论了对消费者在设计和监管市场方面的反应预期的一些政策影响。