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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Broadband Digital Divide And The Economic Benefits Of Mobile Broadband For Rural Areas, James Prieger
The Broadband Digital Divide And The Economic Benefits Of Mobile Broadband For Rural Areas, James Prieger
James E. Prieger
Broadband is becoming increasingly important to national economies and the personal lives of users. However, broadband availability and adopation are not diffusing in rural and urban areas at the same rates. This article updates the rural broadband digital divide, with special attention paid to mobility. Empirical estimations of broadband provision and usage in the US show that rural areas have fewer high-speed fixed and mobile providers but more slower-speed fixed providers than urban areas. While rural availability of mobile broadband is lower than in urban areas, it still helps fill in gaps in fixed broadband coverage in rural areas. The …
The Impact Of Government Policies On Access To Broadband, James Prieger
The Impact Of Government Policies On Access To Broadband, James Prieger
James E. Prieger
With a new focus for federal universal service programs on broadband and the NTIA BTOP funding for broadband adoption projects, recent years have been “exciting times” for those interested in broadband policy aimed at stimulating adoption. While most of the recent programs are still too new to be evaluated rigorously, lessons from older academic study can inform our expectations and lend guidance toward evaluating program success. In this brief work, I review what we know from the last decade and a half of literature on the impact of regulation on broadband adoption, discuss the (mostly woeful) attempts at evaluating adoption …
The Empirics Of The Digital Divide: Can Duration Analysis Help?, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu
The Empirics Of The Digital Divide: Can Duration Analysis Help?, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu
James E. Prieger
Accurate measurement of digital divides is important for policy purposes. Empirical studies on broadband subscription gaps have largely used cross-sectional data, which cannot speak to the timing of technological adoption. Yet, the dynamics of a digital divide are important and deserve study. With the goal of improving our understanding of appropriate techniques for analyzing digital divides, we review competing econometric methodology and propose the use of duration analysis. We compare the performance of alternative estimation methods using a large dataset on DSL subscription in the U.S., paying particular attention to whether women, blacks, and Hispanics catch up to others in …
The Rules Of The Road Or Roadblocks On The Information Highway? Regulation And Innovation In Telecommunications, James Prieger, Daniel Heil
The Rules Of The Road Or Roadblocks On The Information Highway? Regulation And Innovation In Telecommunications, James Prieger, Daniel Heil
James E. Prieger
Regulatory policy in telecommunications must balance short-term efficiency (low prices) against the firms’ incentives to innovate, which have longer reaching impacts on economic welfare. Historically, policy tended to sacrifice dynamic efficiency for the sake of competitive prices and static efficiency. In the last few decades, economists and other researchers have begun to document the large welfare costs of ignoring dynamic efficiency. We analyze the impact regulation has on innovation in a simple theoretical framework. We then turn to the empirical evidence that regulation dampens firms’ incentive to innovate in the telecommunications industry in general and the market for broadband Internet …
The Broadband Digital Divide And The Nexus Of Race, Competition, And Quality, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu
The Broadband Digital Divide And The Nexus Of Race, Competition, And Quality, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu
James E. Prieger
We examine the gap in broadband access to the Internet between minority groups and white households with geographically fine data on DSL subscription. In addition to income and demographics, we also examine quality of service and competition as components of the Digital Divide. The gaps in DSL demand for blacks and Hispanics do not disappear when income, education, and other demographic variables are accounted for. However, lack of competition is an important driver of the Digital Divide for blacks. Service quality is an important determinant of demand, and ignoring it masks the true size of the DSL gap for Hispanics.
Economics At The Fcc, 2008-2009: Broadband And Merger Review, James Prieger, Michelle Connolly
Economics At The Fcc, 2008-2009: Broadband And Merger Review, James Prieger, Michelle Connolly
James E. Prieger
Many issues have come before the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) in the last year. Some actions were taken (as with particular mergers), some actions were postponed (as with Universal Service Fund reform), and some issues are currently being tackled (the National Broadband Strategic Plan). In this paper, we focus on the topic of the National Broadband Plan, which the FCC is mandated to provide to Congress February 17, 2010, the FCC Merger Review process, and the determination of optimal penalties for violations of FCC rules or orders.