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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Nicholas Economides (Stern School of Business, New York University); Joacim Tåg (Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, FDPE, and HECER); |
| Abstract: | We discuss the benefits of net neutrality regulation in the context of a two-sided market model in which platforms sell Internet access services to consumers and may set fees to content and applications providers “on the other side” of the Internet. When access is monopolized, we find that generally net neutrality regulation (that imposes zero fees “on the other side” of the market) increases total industry surplus compared to the fully private optimum at which the monopoly platform imposes positive fees on content and applications providers. Similarly, we find that imposing net neutrality in duopoly increases total surplus compared to duopoly competition between platforms that charge positive fees on content providers. We also discuss the incentives of duopolists to collude in setting the fees “on the other side” of the Internet while competing for Internet access customers. Additionally, we discuss how price and non-price discrimination strategies may be used once net neutrality is abolished. Finally, we discuss how the results generalize to other two-sided markets. |
| Keywords: | net neutrality, two-sided markets, Internet, monopoly, duopoly, regulation, discrimination |
| JEL: | L1 D4 L12 L13 C63 D42 D43 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0714&r=ict |
| By: | Yongmin Chen (Department of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder); Scott J. Savage (Department of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder); |
| Abstract: | An important issue in economics is how market structure affects prices. While the standard view is that competition lowers prices, Chen and Riordan (2006) argued that with product differentiation it is not exceptional for prices to be higher under duopoly than monopoly. This paper empirically investigates one implication from Chen and Riordan, namely, that prices are lower under duopoly when consumer preferences for the two products are similar, and they are more likely to be higher under duopoly if consumer preferences for the two products are more diverse. Focusing on the price for cable modem Internet access, with or without competition from a digital subscriber line provider, and using education dispersion as a proxy for consumer preference diversity, we find empirical support for this implication. In markets where education dispersion is low, competition reduces prices. As education dispersion increases, the negative effect of competition on prices diminishes; and when the dispersion is high enough, competition increases prices. |
| Keywords: | competition, Internet, preference diversity, prices |
| JEL: | L1 L13 L96 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0713&r=ict |
| By: | George Kapetanios (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | Testing serial dependence is central to much of time series econometrics. A number of tests that have been developed and used to explore the dependence properties of various processes. This paper builds on recent work on nonparametric tests of independence. We consider a fact that characterises serially dependent processes using a generalisation of the autocorrelation function. Using this fact we build dependence tests that make use of neural network based approximations. We derive the theoretical properties of our tests and show that they have superior power properties. Our Monte Carlo evaluation supports the theoretical findings. An application to a large dataset of stock returns illustrates the usefulness of the proposed tests. |
| Keywords: | Independence, Neural networks, Strict stationarity, Bootstrap, S&P500 |
| JEL: | C32 C33 G12 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp609&r=ict |
| By: | Luís Vieira |
| Abstract: | This study, continuing work executed in 2006, determines, analyses and publishes rankings concerning the functionalities of information services of Portuguese municipalities, based on the direct observation of their web sites, executed between March and June of 2007. It summarizes information concerning these functionalities through its consolidation to criterion and district or autonomous region levels, considering five criteria (navigation, information on elected officials, municipal information, degree of openness, information on municipality), it analyses the evolution at same levels and concludes, like in precedent year, on the general necessity of more development on every criteria and specially on that called degree of openness. |
| Keywords: | maturity; egovernment; information service; evolution; municipality; functionality. |
| JEL: | D73 H76 L86 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp152007&r=ict |
| By: | K. COUSSEMENT; D. VAN DEN POEL |
| Abstract: | Customer complaint management is becoming a critical key success factor in today’s business environment. This study introduces a methodology to improve complaint handling strategies through an automatic email classification system that distinguishes complaints from non-complaints. As such, complaint handling becomes less time-consuming and more successful. The classification system combines traditional text information with new information about the linguistic style of an email. The empirical results show that adding linguistic style information into a classification model with conventional text-classification variables results in a significant increase in predictive performance. In addition, this study reveals linguistic style differences between complaint emails and others. |
| Keywords: | Customer Complaint Handling, Call Center Email, Voice of Customers (VOC), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), Automatic Email Classification |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:07/481&r=ict |
| By: | Joel Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | In the past few years, YouTube and other sites for sharing video files over the Internet have vaulted from obscurity to places of centrality in the media landscape. The files available at YouTube include a mix of user-generated video and clips from network television shows. Networks fear that availability of their clips on YouTube will depress television viewing. But unauthorized clips are also free advertising for television shows. As YouTube has grown quickly, major networks have responded by making their content available at their own sites. This paper examines the effects of authorized and unauthorized web distribution on television viewing between 2005 and 2007 using a survey of Penn students on their tendencies to watch television series on television as well as on the web. The results provide a glimpse of the way young, Internet-connected people use YouTube and related sites. While I find some evidence of substitution of web viewing for conventional television viewing, time spent viewing programming on the web -- 4 hours per week -- far exceeds the reduction in weekly traditional television viewing of about 25 minutes. Overall time spent on network-controlled viewing (television plus network websites) increased by 1.5 hours per week. |
| JEL: | L1 L82 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13497&r=ict |