CONSUMER'S BEHAVIOR DETERMINANTS AFTER THE ELECTRICITY MARKET LIBERALIZATION: THE PORTUGUESE CASE

Electricity markets have been liberalized worldwide, notwithstanding, the success of country specific experiences varied widely. Consumers' behavior is among the determining factors for successful liberalization experiences. We focus on the Portuguese case, in the retail electricity market liberalization and analyze the main factors affecting switching of supplier. With this aim, we implemented a questionnaire to better understand consumers attitudes towards the electricity market liberalization, through a qualitative and a quantitative analyses. In the qualitative analyses, among the most important determinants to switch operator, we found in first place the satisfaction with the current operator, second the experience of friends and family, and only then the price. Then, in the quantitative analysis, we performed a logit estimation to study the main drivers of the decision to switch operator. Our model showed that, between the variables considered in the analysis, only gender and household size are statistical significant, affecting the probability to change supplier.