Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Inattentive consumers in markets for services

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Inattentive consumers in markets for services

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Close
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/09/2015
<mark>Journal</mark>Theory and Decision
Volume79
Number of pages31
Pages (from-to)302-332
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date12/09/14
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In an experiment on markets for services, we find that consumers are likely to stick to default tariffs and achieve suboptimal outcomes. We find that inattention to the task of choosing a better tariff is likely to be a substantial problem in addition to any task and tariff complexity effect. The institutional setup on which we primarily model our experiment is the UK electricity and gas markets, and our conclusion is that the new measures by the UK regulator Ofgem to improve consumer outcomes are likely to be of limited impact.