IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/umnees/0941.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effect of price on electricity contract choice

Author

Listed:

Abstract

I explore how households switch between fixed-price and variable-price electricity contracts in response to variations in price and temperature, conditional on previous contract choice. Using panel data with roughly 54000 Swedish households, a dynamic probit model is estimated. The results suggest that the choice of contract exhibits substantial state dependence, with an estimated marginal effect of previous contract choice of 0:96, and that the short-run effects of variation in prices and temperature on the choice of electricity contract are small. Further, the state dependence and price responsiveness are similar across housing types, income levels and other dimensions. A plausible explanation of these results is that transaction costs are perceived to be larger than the relatively small cost savings from switching between contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Vesterberg, Mattias, 2017. "The effect of price on electricity contract choice," Umeå Economic Studies 941, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0941
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.usbe.umu.se/digitalAssets/192/192852_ues941.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia & Skrondal, Anders, 2013. "Avoiding biased versions of Wooldridge’s simple solution to the initial conditions problem," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 346-349.
    2. Littlechild, Stephen, 2006. "Competition and contracts in the Nordic residential electricity markets," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 135-147, September.
    3. David Revelt and Kenneth Train., 2000. "Customer-Specific Taste Parameters and Mixed Logit: Households' Choice of Electricity Supplier," Economics Working Papers E00-274, University of California at Berkeley.
    4. Dhillon, Upinder S & Shilling, James D & Sirmans, C F, 1987. "Choosing between Fixed and Adjustable Rate Mortgages: A Note," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 19(2), pages 260-267, May.
    5. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 375-394.
    6. John Y. Campbell & João F. Cocco, 2003. "Household Risk Management and Optimal Mortgage Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1449-1494.
    7. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2005. "Simple solutions to the initial conditions problem in dynamic, nonlinear panel data models with unobserved heterogeneity," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 39-54, January.
    8. Ek, Kristina & Söderholm, Patrik, 2008. "Households' switching behavior between electricity suppliers in Sweden," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 254-261, December.
    9. Hunt Allcott, 2011. "Consumers' Perceptions and Misperceptions of Energy Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 98-104, May.
    10. Mark B. Stewart, 2007. "The interrelated dynamics of unemployment and low-wage employment," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 511-531.
    11. Anders Skrondal & Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, 2014. "Handling initial conditions and endogenous covariates in dynamic/transition models for binary data with unobserved heterogeneity," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 63(2), pages 211-237, February.
    12. Nesbakken, Runa, 1999. "Price sensitivity of residential energy consumption in Norway," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 493-515, December.
    13. Severin Borenstein, 2012. "The Redistributional Impact of Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 56-90, August.
    14. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    15. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    16. Defeuilley, Christophe, 2009. "Retail competition in electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 377-386, February.
    17. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    18. Mattias Vesterberg and Chandra Kiran B. Krishnamurthy, 2016. "Residential End-use Electricity Demand: Implications for Real Time Pricing in Sweden," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    19. Andrew A. Goett & Kathleen Hudson & Kenneth E. Train, 2000. "Customers' Choice Among Retail Energy Suppliers: The Willingness-to-Pay for Service Attributes," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-28.
    20. Ketterer, Janina C., 2014. "The impact of wind power generation on the electricity price in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 270-280.
    21. Wiji Arulampalam & Mark B. Stewart, 2009. "Simplified Implementation of the Heckman Estimator of the Dynamic Probit Model and a Comparison with Alternative Estimators," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(5), pages 659-681, October.
    22. Juliusson, E. Asgeir & Gamble, Amelie & Garling, Tommy, 2007. "Loss aversion and price volatility as determinants of attitude towards and preference for variable price in the Swedish electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5953-5957, November.
    23. Kazukauskas, Andrius & Broberg, Thomas, 2016. "Perceptions and inattention in private electricity consumption," CERE Working Papers 2016:2, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics, revised 03 Oct 2023.
    24. Karen Palmer & Margaret Walls, 2015. "Limited Attention and the Residential Energy Efficiency Gap," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 192-195, May.
    25. Ericson, Torgeir, 2011. "Households' self-selection of dynamic electricity tariffs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(7), pages 2541-2547, July.
    26. Koichiro Ito, 2014. "Do Consumers Respond to Marginal or Average Price? Evidence from Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 537-563, February.
    27. Akay, Alpaslan, 2009. "The Wooldridge Method for the Initial Values Problem Is Simple: What About Performance?," IZA Discussion Papers 3943, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    28. Klemperer, Paul D, 1987. "Entry Deterrence in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388a), pages 99-117, Supplemen.
    29. Woo, C.K. & Horowitz, I. & Moore, J. & Pacheco, A., 2011. "The impact of wind generation on the electricity spot-market price level and variance: The Texas experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 3939-3944, July.
    30. Gamble, Amelie & Juliusson, E. Asgeir & Gärling, Tommy, 2009. "Consumer attitudes towards switching supplier in three deregulated markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 814-819, October.
    31. Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B. & Kriström, Bengt, 2015. "A cross-country analysis of residential electricity demand in 11 OECD-countries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 68-88.
    32. Yang, Yingkui, 2014. "Understanding household switching behavior in the retail electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 406-414.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2017. "Heterogeneity in price responsiveness of electricity: Contract choice and the role of media coverage," Umeå Economic Studies 940, Umeå University, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2018. "The effect of price on electricity contract choice," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 59-70.
    2. Gauthier Lanot & Mattias Vesterberg, 2019. "An empirical model of the decision to switch between electricity price contracts," Journal of Business Analytics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 24-46, January.
    3. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2017. "Heterogeneity in price responsiveness of electricity: Contract choice and the role of media coverage," Umeå Economic Studies 940, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    4. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2017. "Power to the people: Electricity demand and household behavior," Umeå Economic Studies 942, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    5. Manudeep Bhuller & Christian N. Brinch & Sebastian Königs, 2017. "Time Aggregation and State Dependence in Welfare Receipt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 1833-1873, September.
    6. Lanot, Gauthier & Vesterberg, Mattias, 2021. "The price elasticity of electricity demand when marginal incentives are very large," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    7. Alexander Mosthaf & Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel, 2014. "Low-wage employment versus unemployment: Which one provides better prospects for women?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Nogata, Daisuke, 2022. "Determinants of household switching between natural gas suppliers: Evidence from Japan," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Lucchetti, Riccardo & Pigini, Claudia, 2017. "DPB: Dynamic Panel Binary Data Models in gretl," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 79(i08).
    10. Chrysanthou, Georgios Marios & Guilló, María Dolores, 2016. "The Dynamics of Heterogeneous Political Party Support and Egocentric Economic Evaluations: the Scottish Case," QM&ET Working Papers 16-3, University of Alicante, D. Quantitative Methods and Economic Theory.
    11. Lionel WILNER, 2019. "The Dynamics of Individual Happiness," Working Papers 2019-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    12. Richard Bluhm & Martin Gassebner & Sarah Langlotz & Paul Schaudt, 2021. "Fueling conflict? (De)escalation and bilateral aid," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 244-261, March.
    13. Prieto Suarez, Joaquin, 2021. "Poverty traps and affluence shields: modelling the persistence of income position in Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110719, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Carlos Gradín & Olga Cantó, 2009. "Why are child poverty rates so persistently high in Spain?," Working Papers 123, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    15. Sebastian Königs, 2013. "The Dynamics of Social Assistance Benefit Receipt in Germany: State Dependence Before and After the Hartz Reforms," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 136, OECD Publishing.
    16. Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B. & Vesterberg, Mattias & Böök, Herman & Lindfors, Anders V. & Svento, Rauli, 2018. "Real-time pricing revisited: Demand flexibility in the presence of micro-generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 642-658.
    17. Georgios Marios Chrysanthou, 2021. "A Multiple Cohort Study of the Gender Gradient of Life Satisfaction during Adolescence: Longitudinal Evidence from Great Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(6), pages 1341-1376, December.
    18. Francesco Bartolucci & Claudia Pigini, 2017. "Granger causality in dynamic binary short panel data models," Working Papers 421, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    19. Yin King Fok & Sung-Hee Jeon & Roger Wilkins, 2009. "Does Part-Time Employment Help or Hinder Lone Mothers Movements into Full-Time Employment?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2009n25, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    20. Dasgupta, Kabir & Pacheco, Gail & Plum, Alexander, 2023. "State dependence in immunization and the role of discouragement," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity demand; electricity contract choice; demand flexibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0941. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: David Skog (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inumuse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.