Consumer empowerment in Europe: its determinants and the challenges met in measuring it

Relaying on data from the Special Eurobarometer survey n. 342 launched in 2010 by the European Commission, this paper aims at measuring consumer empowerment at the European level and at portraying the characteristics of empowered consumers. The first objective is achieved through the development of an ad hoc composite indicator – the “Consumer Empowerment Index” – and the second is pursued analyzing its socio-economic determinants. Overall, we find that consumers in the Nordic countries are the most empowered and that, ceteris paribus, low educated individuals and materially deprived ones are particularly vulnerable consumers. Older generations and females are also potentially consumers at riskJRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic