Yoonhee Tina Chang (School of Management, University of Bath) Catherine Waddams Price () (Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia)
Abstract
Competition Authorities are introducing new informational remedies to help consumers search and switch more actively. Using a specially commissioned data set, and unique direct estimates of the gains, search and switching time which consumers anticipate, we examine the determinants of consumer activity in eight markets. We find that expected costs (and to some extent gains) do influence consumers as a utility maximising model would predict; but that their role is small, and other factors, particularly experience of switching in other markets, are also influential. We conclude that consumers’ confidence in their own estimates is crucial in encouraging market activity.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia in its series Working Papers with number
08-15.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2006.
"Information, Search, and Price Dispersion,"
Working Papers
2006-11, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
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