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Why Do More British Consumers Not Switch Energy Suppliers? The Role of Individual Attitudes / Xiaoping He and David Reiner. Cambridge : Energy Policy Research Group, 2015 (EPRG Working Paper 1515) http://www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1515-PDF.pdf Consumers’ activities play an important role in determining the extent to which any market may become competitive. Although energy prices and switching tariffs and suppliers become very salient politically over 2013-14 in the UK and the number and share of small suppliers increased dramatically over that period, relatively fewer customers switched suppliers in UK electricity and gas markets despite the potential for financial gains, suggesting that non-price factors may affect switching decisions. Using a unique nation-wide British survey, we investigate the determinants of consumers’ switching behavior in electricity and gas markets, by emphasizing the effects of individual attitudes towards energy issues as well as perception of switching cost and benefit. We find that the complexity of household energy tariffs, consumers’ lack of attention to issue of energy prices, expectation on the costs of switching process and lack of switching experience discourage switching. Political allegiance also appears to play a role as Labour Party voters are more likely to switch...The cost of price de-linkages between European gas hubs / Beatrice Petrovich. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2015, 58 p. (OIES paper NG 101) https://www.oxfordenergy.org/2014/09/european-gas-hubs-price-correlation-barriers-to-convergence/Previous work by OIES tracked the progressive path towards a Single European Gas Market, with the aim of assessing the degree of integration of European gas markets and unveiling the remaining barriers to the free flow of gas across the borders. Notwithstanding differences in traded volumes, this research has shown that, in the January 2007-October 2013 period, day ahead prices set by demand and supply at the main European gas hubs were broadly aligned and featured generally good correlation, suggesting that the main European gas markets are spatially well integrated and competitive...Levelling the Playing Field: On the Missing Role of Network Externality in Designing Renewable Energy Technology Deployment Policies / W. Jin &#38; Z. Zhang. Milan, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2015, 33 p. (Nota di Lavoro 76.2015) http://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/2015921529544NDL2015-076.pdfIn creating a level playing field that facilitates the deployment of renewable energy technology (RET), the traditional energy policy regime based on eliminating RET’s cost gaps versus fossil energy technology (FET) may be not sufficient. Building on an economic model of energy technology adoption that features network externality, this paper takes an explicit account of the potential importance of network externality in the design of RET adoption policies. We argue that as incumbent FET has established pervasive deployment and installed base advantages within the existing energy production, distribution and service network, it would create a network externality mechanism that makes it difficult to dislodge the dominant FET-based technological regime, leading to an inertia against the adoption of newly emerging RET even if energy policy regulations have been put in place to eliminate RET’s cost disadvantage. We hence propose that a reformulation of RET policy paradigm should consider extending the traditional scheme centring on eliminating cost gap to a new one that corrects for both cost and network externality gaps.