The streets of Melbourne, Sydney and every other town were really dark. There was little light on the streets, in businesses or coming from homes.
But new research into light bulbs, and our attitude towards them, by economists from Australia and Canada, suggests consumers are actively hurting themselves and their financial futures. Spending a couple of seconds extra in the supermarket or in the local Harvey Norman or down at a car yard could literally save us thousands of dollars at a time but, as humans, we’re sadly hardwired not to do the work that could reduce the inflationary squeeze.Economists Andrea La Nauze, from the University of Queensland, and Erica Myers, from the University of Calgary, examined whether they could find a way to help buyers of light bulbs make a financial decision right for them.
“We found that people who are paid a small subsidy to get information make better decisions,” La Nauze said. But often, the deck has been stacked against ordinary consumers. To begin with, the information has not been designed to be easy to understand or be comparable to a competitor. The advent of unit pricing – breaking down the price per kilogram or litre of goods – was resisted in this country for years even though it was a small piece of information that would help a consumer determine the real value of a product.Many producers are required to label the ingredients and nutritional information on their wares. But as the La Nauze and Myers research suggests, even when people read this they may struggle to make heads or tails of it.