As energy prices continue to rise to reflect the real cost of carbon, the numbers of households in fuel poverty is increasing rapidly. This paper uses a unique data set to explore one alternative measure of fuel poverty based on whether consumers feel able to afford their energy, similar to one...

This study provides an empirical assessment of the efficiency and interest rate changes occurring during 61 UK retail bank mergers. Key findings of the work include the general efficiency enhancing influence of UK bank mergers and the limited effect of merger on retail interest rates....

Turkish electricity reform is entering a new phase through the Turkish Government's proposal to create 21 new distribution companies, 18 of them through merger. Two aspects of merger analysis are the operational cost savings and the potential production efficiency gains. This paper concentrates...

This policy paper offers a synthesis of research on privatisation and its impacts on the utilities sector in different countries. It identifies issues to be considered by policy makers concerned with economic reform, including the implications of sequencing privatisation together with...

This paper analyses the potential effect of electricity reform on different households, using a series of potential scenarios for price changes, and consumption information from the 2003 Turkish Household Expenditure Survey. Turkey is emerging as a regional energy market, hub, and transit...

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...

This paper assesses the ability of consumers to choose between alternative suppliers. Across two independent datasets from the UK electricity market we find that consumers switching exclusively for price reasons appropriated only a quarter to half of the maximum gains available. While such...

In this article we chart the development of competition and deregulation of the British retail energy markets, explaining the evolution of competitive constraints when consumers are introduced to supplier choice for the first time. In the context of rising real energy prices for consumers, and...

We examine the effect of electricity market reform on residential consumers, using hypothetical scenarios likely to be prompted by reform. These include raising tariffs to cost reflective levels and introducing a standing charge to recover 10% of the revenue to mirror cost reflective structures....

Governments are committed to reducing the regulatory burden on business and individuals, while at the same time transferring many tasks from bureaucrats. One such example is tax compliance where self-assessment (SA) has raised concerns that such transfers may place a particularly heavy burden on...