Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

L’Investimento Nelle Reti Nga A Larga Banda: La 'Questione Settentrionale', Nicola Matteucci

Nicola Matteucci

Current developments of DAE (digital agenda for Europe) emphasize investments in NGA broadband networks as a main step to promote public and private eServices and transform public administrations. We focus on Northern Italy, where fast diffusion of NGAN is currently perceived as a fundamental ingredient for increasing competitiveness and curb the economy’s decline. In particular, this work investigates the widespread market failures characterizing Italian NGAN roll-out, the possible solutions and the technical and financial feasibility of the proposed plans – both private and public. Together, it connects the issue of NGAN financing with the current debate on the efficient and …

Residential And Business Broadband Prices Part 1: An Empirical Analysis Of Metering And Other Price Determinants, Scott J. Wallsten, James Riso

Scott J. Wallsten

For this project, we assemble a new dataset consisting of more than 25,000 residential and business broadband plans from all OECD countries from 2007–2009. We explore three issues: the relationship between plan components—such as metering—and consumer prices, price changes over time, and how broadband prices vary across countries.

This paper, part 1 of the project, discusses pricing for broadband plans and, specifically, the relationship between plan components and pricing. We find that residential broadband plans with data caps—plans in which consumers pay a base price for a set amount of data—cost less than plans with unlimited data, other things being …

Export, R&D And New Products. A Model And A Test On European Industries, Dario Guarascio, Mario Pianta, Francesco Bogliacino

Mario Pianta

In this article we extend the model developed by Bogliacino and Pianta (2013a, 2013b) on the link between R&D, innovation and economic performance, considering the impact of innovation of export success. We develop a simultaneous three equation model in order to investigate the existence of a ‘virtuous circle’ between industries’ R&D, share of product innovators and export market shares. We investigate empirically – at the industry level – three key relationships affecting the dynamics of innovation and export performance: first, the capacity of firms to translate their R&D efforts in new products; second, the role of innovation as a determinant …

Two Cheers For The Fcc's Mobility Fund Reverse Auction, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The United States held its first competitive bidding, or “reverse auction,” for universal service subsidies in September 2012. While it is far too early to investigate whether this national auction generated improvements in mobile voice and broadband service in underserved areas, it is not too soon to evaluate the auction itself. This paper investigates the outcome of the Mobility Fund Phase 1 Auction (Auction 901) and considers what we could learn from it for universal service and for future planned reverse auctions, such as the upcoming incentive auction, which aims to reallocate spectrum from broadcasters to those who place a …

Production And Financial Linkages In Inter-Firm Networks: Structural Variety, Risk-Sharing And Resilience, Sandro Montresor, Giulio Cainelli, Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti

Sandro Montresor

The paper analyzes how (production and financial) inter-firm networks can affect firms’ default probabilities and observed default rates. A simple theoretical model of shock transfer is built to investigate some stylized facts on how firm-idiosyncratic shocks are allocated in the network, and how this allocation changes firm default probabilities. The model shows that the network works as a perfect “risk-pooling” mechanism, when it is both strongly connected and symmetric. But the “risk-sharing” does not necessarily reduce default rates, unless the shock firms face is lower on average than their financial capacity. Conceived as cases of symmetric inter-firm networks, industrial districts …

Secondary Markets: The Quiet Economic Value Creator, John Mayo, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

What Gets Measured Gets Done: Stop Focusing On Irrelevant Broadband Metrics, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

Concerns regarding the state of U.S. broadband arises from a combination of focusing on the wrong metrics, a misguided interpretation of consumer preferences, and a popular obsession with rankings. These misperceptions translate into misdirected, if well-intentioned, public policies that waste scarce resources and distract from real issues like a large income-based digital divide.

Testimony On The Role Of Government In Promoting R&D, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

How To Create A More Efficient Broadband Universal Service Program By Incorporating Demand And Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The existing high-cost fund suffers from two inherent flaws: it does not incorporate how much consumers value the services being subsidized, and does not measure the incremental, rather than average, effects of the program. This paper proposes a way to incorporate those factors into the Connect America Fund—the proposed high-cost broadband support program—to enable it to operate more efficiently than the existing high-cost program ever could.

In particular, decisions about where to provide subsidies should be based on cost-effectiveness analyses that explicitly take into account not just the cost of providing service but also how much consumers would value the …

Secondary Spectrum Markets As Complements To Incentive Auctions, Scott J. Wallsten, John W. Mayo

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Pricing Strategies In A Digital World, Laura Martin, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

The Universal Service Fund: What Do High-Cost Subsidies Subsidize?, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The universal service program in the United States currently transfers about $7.5 billion per year from telephone subscribers to certain telephone companies. Those funds are intended to help achieve particular policy goals, such as subsidizing telephone service in rural areas and making phone service more affordable to low-income people. The bulk of the funds, about $4.5 billion per year, subsidizes firms operating in high-cost areas. A large literature documents the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of these subsidies, raising the question of where the money goes. This paper uses data submitted by about 1,400 recipients of high-cost subsidies from 1998 – 2008 …

The Deindustrialisation/Tertiarisation Hypothesis Reconsidered: A Subsystem Application To The Oecd, Sandro Montresor Prof., Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti

Sandro Montresor

The diffusion of outsourcing and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI) among manufacturing firms, along with the vertical integration of market services into manufacturing, is questioning the so called ‘Deindustrialisation/Tertiarisation’ (DT) hypothesis. In particular, it has been argued that DT might be an ‘apparent’ phenomenon, in fact amounting to a simple reorganisation of production across national and sectoral boundaries. The empirical studies that try to support this hypothesis, however, cannot be deemed conclusive as they suffer two methodological drawbacks: a non-(sub-)systemic sectoral level of analysis and a not truly global empirical approach. In order to overcome these drawbacks, the paper carries …

Outsourcing, Delocalization And Firm Organization: Transaction Costs Vs. Industrial Relations In A Local Production System Of Emilia Romagna, Sandro Montresor Prof., Massimiliano Mazzanti, Paolo Pini

Sandro Montresor

This article investigates the firms’ decisions to outsource, taking into account the impact of their embeddedness in a specific regional context on the relative entrepreneurial decision. It focuses on the role of industrial relations, as a factor that could interfere with the entrepreneurs’ decision of resorting to market relationships in discovering and exploiting new business opportunities. We study a local production system in Emilia Romagna (Northern Italy), i.e. the province of Reggio Emilia (RE), whose firms are characterized by a district kind of environment and where entrepreneurship develops in the presence of ‘thick’ industrial relations. The empirical part of the …

On Indirect Trade-Related R&D Spillovers: The “Average Propagation Length” Of Foreign R&D, Sandro Montresor Prof., Chiara Franco, Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti

Sandro Montresor

The paper estimates the impact on Total Factor Productivity of trade-related R&D spillovers by accounting for the economic distance between countries. The Average Propagation Length foreign R&D covers to reach a domestic country is used in building the foreign available R&D stock and to estimate its TFP impact vs. that of the domestic R&D stock. With respect to 20 OECD countries in the period 1995–2005, the impact on TFP of the available foreign R&D stock is greater than that of the domestic one. Results support the models that recognize indirect trade-related R&D spillovers and provide for them a more accurate …

Residential And Business Broadband Prices: Data Appendix, Scott J. Wallsten, James Riso

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

An Economic Overview Of The Implications For Online Video Of The Proposed Comcast-Nbcu Transaction, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Residential Broadband Competition In The United States, Scott J. Wallsten, Colleen Mallahan

Scott J. Wallsten

This paper uses a new FCC dataset on residential broadband subscribership and speeds at the census tract level combined with data from a number of additional sources to explore the state of broadband competition in the U.S. and test the effects of competition on speeds, penetration, and prices.

We find that the number of wireline providers in a census tract is positively correlated with the highest available broadband speeds, even when controlling for housing density, household income, state fixed effects, and endogenizing the number of providers. That is, we find that DSL, cable, and fiber speeds are each significantly higher …

Understanding International Comparisons: 2009 Update, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Testimony On Reforming The Universal Service High Cost Fund, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Wobbling Back To The Fire: Economic Efficiency And The Creation Of A Retail Market For Set-Top Boxes, T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak, Michael Stern

GEORGE S FORD

Under Section 629 of the Communications Act, Congress directed the FCC to adopt regulations to promote a retail market for set-top boxes. The Commission’s first attempt was the ill-fated CableCard experiment, which—by the Commission’s own admission—was a dismal failure. In response, the Commission is now contemplating an aggressive new “AllVid” regime, whereby the agency would mandate multichannel video program distributors (“MVPDs”) to provide an adapter to serve as a “common interface for connection to televisions, DVRs, and other smart video devices.” Because the FCC is again proceeding without any formal economic analysis of the nature of the service-equipment relationship in …

The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak

GEORGE S FORD

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety of that deregulatory move by the FCC has been criticized by the purchasers of such services ever since. Proponents of special access price regulation rely on three central arguments to support a retreat to strict price regulation: (1) the market(s) for special access and similar services is unduly concentrated; (2) rates of return on special access services, computed using FCC ARMIS data, are …

The Dtv Coupon Program: A Boon To Retailers, Not Consumers, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Testimony For Fcc En Banc Hearing At Carnegie Mellon University On Broadband And The Digital Future, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Understanding International Broadband Comparisons, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of Pacific Bell V. Linkline Communications, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Testimony On Broadband To Senate Committee On Small Business And Entrepreneurship, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

A Regulatory Play In Two Acts, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

No More Baseball Giveaways, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Broadband And Unbundling Regulations In Oecd Countries, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

Broadband penetration and available speeds vary widely across OECD countries. Policymakers around the world, and especially in countries like the U.S. that lag in the rankings, are searching for policies to narrow those gaps. Relatively little empirical work tests possible reasons for these differences. In this paper I test the impacts of regulations and demographics on broadband development in a panel dataset across countries. In addition to adding to the meager empirical literature on broadband across countries, this paper is novel in two ways. First, it explicitly takes into account the many different types of unbundling regulations that countries have …