Measuring Switching Costs in the Italian Residential Electricity Market
利用2015-2018年意大利电力市场数据，研究居民更换电力供应商的转换成本大小，发现从原有供应商转换成本极高，接近年能源支出，而更换其他供应商成本较低。
Residential electricity markets in European countries are still characterized by low consumer engagement, especially where regulated and liberalized markets coex- ist. Using an original dataset on 2015–2018 prices for the Italian electricity mar- ket, augmented with the number of residential consumers, we study the presence and magnitude of switching costs—i.e., time-based and cognitive-based costs on consumers changing providers—in the liberalized market. We find that switch- ing from the incumbent involves high costs—almost as high as the yearly energy expenditure—while switching from competitors is less expensive. We also carry out two counterfactual analyses. In the first, we show that consumers would have incurred lower average switching costs over the years had the market been less concentrated. In the second, we simulate how switching costs could evolve once regulated prices are phased out, and the market is fully liberalized.