1,721,035 research outputs found
Telecommunications Regulation in U.S. States: Its Rise and Impacts in the Early Twentieth Century
Get PDFIn the second half of the 19th century U.S. states began regulating railroads, and in the early 20th century they began regulating utilities, including telephone service. In 1902, only Louisiana had a regulatory agency with authority over telephone companies, but by 1913, 39 states did. These agencies survive today, usually as public utility commissions. This paper explores their impacts on the early development of the U.S. telephone industry. I construct a unique dataset from the 1902, 1907, and 1912 U.S. Census of telephones and from detailed surveys of regulators compiled by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) in 1911 and 1913. These data sources provide an opportunity to test the effects of competition and regulation on development of the telephone industry in an environment where regulations were new and the telephone network relatively undeveloped. Consistent with other research, competition between telephone providers is correlated with growth in telephone penetration. The results also suggest that the presence of state regulators slowed telephone penetration, but that certain specific regulations, such as requiring regulatory approval for mergers, may have stimulated growth.
Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries
Get PDFConcerns about a worsening "digital divide" between rich and poor countries parallel the hope that information and computing technologies (ICTs) could increase economic growth in developing countries. Little research, however, has explored ICT growth beyond noting that it is correlated with standard development indicators, and no empirical research has explored the role of regulation. In this paper, Scott Wallsten uses data from a unique new survey of telecommunications regulators and other sources to measure the effects of regulation on Internet development. Controlling for factors such as income, telecommunications infrastructure development, ubiquity of personal computers, and time trends,Mr.Wallstenfinds that countries requiring formal regulatory approval for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to operate have fewer Internet users and hosts than countries that do not require such approval. Moreover, countries that regulate ISP final-user prices have higher Internet access prices than countries without such regulations. These results suggest that developing countries' own regulatory policies can have large impacts on the digital divide.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform, Other Topics
Privatizing Monopolies in Developing Countries: The Real Effects of Exclusivity Periods in Telecommunications
Get PDFWhen reforming their network utility industries, many developing countries give the newly-privatized incumbent exclusive rights to serve a particular market. These "exclusivity periods" are especially common in telecommunications. Research to date has explored the effects of privatization, competition, and to a lesser extent, regulation. We know very little, however, about the effects of the details of privatization transactions themselves and, in particular, how exclusivity periods matter. I use an original, new dataset to explore the costs and benefits of this approach to privatization. I find that exclusivity periods are associated with significant increases in the firm's sale price. The increased revenues to the government come with a cost, however. Exclusivity periods are correlated with a significant decrease in the incumbent's investment in the telecommunications network, payphones, mobile telephone penetration, and international calling.
Has the Internet Increased Trade? Evidence From Developed and Developing Countries
Get PDFIf the Internet made it easier for firms to enter new markets by reducing communication and search costs then it may also have made it easier to export goods and services. We find that higher Internet penetration in developing countries is positively correlated with exports to developed countries, but not with trade between developing countries or with exports from developed countries.Interpreting the correlations is difficult because causation may run from Internet use to exports or from trade openness to Internet use.To test whether Internet use affects export behavior, we endogenize Internet use by using countries' regulation of data services and Internet provision as instrumental variables. The results are robust to endogenizing Internet penetration, suggesting that access to the Internet does affect export performance of firms in developing countries. In other words, Internet access appears to stimulate exports from poor countries to rich countries. Moreover, the analysis suggests that regulatory policies affecting telecommunications and Internet development indirectly affect trade.
Public or Private Drinking Water: The Effects of Ownership and Benchmark Competition on U.S. Water System Regulatory Compliance and Household Water Expenditures
Get PDFWhether water systems should be owned and operated by governments or private firms is intensely controversial, and little empirical research sheds light on the issue. In this paper we use a panel dataset that includes every community water system in the U.S. from 1997-2003 to test the effects of ownership and benchmark competition on regulatory compliance and household water expenditures. We find that when controlling for water source, location fixed effects, county income, urbanization and year, there is little difference between public and private systems. Public systems are somewhat more likely to violate the maximum levels of health-based contaminants allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), while private systems are somewhat more likely to violate monitoring and reporting regulations. The results are reversed for systems that serve more than 100,000 people. Household expenditures on water at the county level decrease slightly as the share of private ownership increases, contradicting fears that private ownership brings higher prices. While direct competition among piped water systems is practically nonexistent, we find that benchmark competition among water systems within counties is associated with fewer SDWA violations and, when combined with private ownership, lower household expenditures.Overall, the results suggest that absent competition, whether water systems are owned by private firms or governments may, on average, simply not matter much.
An Economic Perspective on a U.S. National Broadband Plan
Get PDFThis paper responds to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s request for guidance in designing a national broadband plan. We argue that the U.S. market for Internet services is working well overall, as evidenced by nearly ubiquitous coverage, rapid adoption, large investments, and increasing speeds. Still, the market is not working well for all people in all places, and we offer a framework for considering policies intended to mitigate those issues.
Has the internet increased trade? Evidence from industrial and developing countries
Get PDFIf the Internet made it easier for firms to enter new markets by reducing communication and search costs, then it may also have made it easier to export goods and services. The authors find that higher Internet penetration in developing countries is correlated with greater exports to industrial countries, but not with trade between developing countries or with exports from industrial countries. Interpreting the correlations is difficult because causation may run from Internet use to exports or from trade openness to Internet use. To test whether Internet use affects export behavior, the authors endogenize Internet use by using countries'regulation of data services and Internet provision as instrumental variables. The results are robust to endogenizing Internet penetration, suggesting that access to the Internet does affect the export performance of firms in developing countries. In other words, Internet access appears to stimulate exports from poor countries to rich countries. Moreover, the analysis suggests that regulatory policies affecting telecommunications and Internet development indirectly affect trade, further emphasizing the importance of deregulating potentially competitive services in the telecommunications industry.Rural Communications,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Knowledge Economy,Information Technology,Knowledge Economy,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,Rural Communications
Universal(ly bad) service - providing infrastructure services to rural and poor urban consumers
Get PDFUntil recently, utility services (telecommunications, power, water, and gas) throughout the world were provided by large, usually state-owned, monopolies. However, encouraged by technological change, regulatory innovation, and pressure from international organizations, many developing countries are privatizing state-owned companies and introducing competition. Some observers worry that even if reforms improve efficiency, they might compromise an important public policy goal-ensuring"universal access"for low-income and rural households. The authors review the motivation for universal service, methods used to try to achieve it under monopoly service provision, how reforms might affect these approaches, and the theoretical and empirical evidence of the impact of reform on these consumers. Next, using household data from around the world, they investigate empirically the historical performance of public monopolies in meeting universal service obligations and the impact of reform. The results show the massive failure of state monopolies to provide service to poor and rural households everywhere except Eastern Europe. Moreover, while the data are limited, the evidence suggests that reforms have not harmed poor and rural consumers, and in many cases have improved their access to utility services. Nevertheless, because competition undermines traditional methods of funding universal service objectives (cross-subsidies), the authors also review mechanisms that could finance these objectives without compromising the benefits of reforms.Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Municipal Financial Management
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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