PRICE Lab
The Programme of Research Investigating Consumer Evaluations (PRICE) Lab is supported by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).
PRICE Lab is a multi-annual research programme that uses laboratory and online experiments to study consumer decision making in key Irish markets. The experiments assess the quality of consumer decisions, diagnose problems and test potential interventions, such as consumer advice and new regulations designed to help consumers to make better decisions.
PRICE Lab has published research on personal loans, which you can read here, energy tariffs, and car finance. It has also developed new methods for studying consumers’ abilities with complex products, which you can read here.
Forthcoming work includes papers on smart meters, the cost of handsets, premium rate services, default settings on online calculators, broadband speed, mortgages, and consumers’ abilities to spot gains from switching.
