Consumer switching behavior and bundling: an empirical study of Japan’s retail energy markets

Reiko Murakami ()
Additional contact information
Reiko Murakami: Kindai University

International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, 2022, vol. 16, issue 2, No 6, 443-463

Abstract: Abstract After the full liberalization of Japan’s retail electricity and city gas markets, marketing strategies such as the bundling of electricity, gas or other services have become very popular. According to the previous theoretical literature, bundling strategies can increase the switching costs incurred by consumers and reduce the probability of consumers switching retail suppliers. This study empirically examines whether retail suppliers’ bundling strategies affect consumers’ switching behavior in Japan’s retail energy markets. Implementing a discrete choice model using micro-data on households in the Kansai region of Japan, this study obtains results, showing that when consumers subscribe for electricity bundled with gas or other services, they are significantly less likely to switch their electricity suppliers. This paper provides policy implications for reviewing market competition and consumer welfare after the full liberalization of Japan’s retail energy markets.

Keywords: Bundling; Switching behavior; Retail energy market; Discrete choice model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L10 L94 L95 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42495-022-00083-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ijoeps:v:16:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s42495-022-00083-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... policy/journal/42495

DOI: 10.1007/s42495-022-00083-8

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Economic Policy Studies is currently edited by Akira Maeda

More articles in International Journal of Economic Policy Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().