|
on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Greenstein, Shane |
| Abstract: | What are the signs of healthy behavior in an innovative industry? This seemingly simple question isn’t so simple to answer in a quickly evolving industry such as the Internet. Commercial behavior resides inside a complex value chain, which is a set of interrelated activities that produces a final product for end users. No single firm controls the value chain, and the quality, price, and user experience arise from the complex interactions between those participants. Moreover, over time many parts of this value chain have undergone innovative improvements, and no reasonable observer expects those improvements to cease tomorrow. There is no agreement about which criteria observers and policy makers should use to assess the performance of the commercial Internet. Ever since the commercial Internet first emerged, there have been arguments about how to best organize its value chain to achieve maximum value for the most users. Disagreements have not diminished with time. If anything, this debate has grown shrill as the number of commercial interests and business commentators have grown. This essay makes a novel contribution to this topic. It identifies patterns of healthy commercial behavior indicative of an innovative industry, and illustrates how to observe signs of such behavior in information technology markets, such as the Internet. Stated broadly, the essay identifies healthy behavior that correlates with desirable marketwide outcomes, such as improvement in products, lower prices, new capabilities, or other innovations that lead to productivity improvements among business users. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:rpubli:577&r=ict |
| By: | Greenstein, Shane |
| Abstract: | The innovations that became the foundation for the Internet originate from two eras that illustrate two distinct models for accumulating innovations over the long haul. The pre-commercial era illustrates the operation of several useful non-market institutional arrangements. It also illustrates a potential drawback to government sponsorship – in this instance, truncation of exploratory activity. The commercial era illustrates a rather different set of lessons. It highlights the extraordinary power of market-oriented and widely distributed investment and adoption, which illustrates the power of market experimentation to foster innovative activity. It also illustrates a few of the conditions necessary to unleash value creation from such accumulated lessons, such as standards development and competition, and nurturing legal and regulatory policies. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:574&r=ict |
| By: | Rosston, Gregory L.; Savage, Scott J.; Waldman, Donald M. |
| Abstract: | As part of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) National Broadband Report to Congress, we have been asked to conduct a survey to help determine consumer valuations of different aspects of broadband Internet service. This report details our methodology, sample and preliminary results. We do not provide policy recommendations.<br><br>This draft report uses data obtained from a nationwide survey during late December 2009 and early January 2010 to estimate household demand for broadband Internet service. The report combines household data, obtained from choices in a real market and an experimental setting, with a discrete-choice model to estimate the marginal willingness-to-pay (WTP) for improvements in eight Internet service characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:36&r=ict |
| By: | Benkler, Yochai |
| Abstract: | Fostering the development of a ubiquitously networked society, connected over high-capacity networks, is a widely shared goal among both developed and developing countries. High capacity networks are seen as strategic infrastructure, intended to contribute to high and sustainable economic growth and to core aspects of human development. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:8&r=ict |
| By: | Rajanish Dass |
| Abstract: | Information plays a vital role in lives of individuals/groups for development and growth. Just information does not serve the purpose, but accurate information does. The sources/tools/techniques used to get the desired information have evolved from the foremost person-to-person interaction to the latest search engines on the World Wide Web. Thus options to obtain information have widened. Search engines have enabled to get information from any corner of the world to person’s desktop within fraction of seconds. In this paper, we try to study the information needs of rural population in India. This research tries to understand types of information required and frequency of search for information among the rural population. The study attempts to understand whether, demand exists for ‘information on demand’ or search engine service itself would unlock a new untapped demand. [W.P. No.2008-05-01] |
| Keywords: | information, development, growth, Worlse Wide Web, rural population, frequency |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2746&r=ict |
| By: | Economides, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | This paper responds to arguments made in filings in the FCC’s broadband openness proceeding (GN Dkt. 09-191) and incorporates data made available since my January 14th filing in that proceeding. Newly available data confirm that there is limited competition in the broadband access marketplace. Contrary to some others’ arguments, wireless broadband access services are unlikely to act as effective economic substitutes for wireline broadband access services (whether offered by telephone companies or cable operators) and instead are likely to act as a complement. Nor will competition in the Internet backbone marketplace constrain broadband providers’ behavior in providing “last mile” broadband access services. The last mile, concentrated market structure, combined with high switching costs, provides last mile broadband network providers with the ability to engage in practices that will reduce social welfare in the absence of open broadband rules. Furthermore, the effect of open broadband rules on broadband provider revenues is likely to be small and can be either positive or negative. Unfortunately, various filings have misstated or mischaracterized the results on the economics of two-sided markets. Contrary to what some have argued, allowing broadband providers to charge third party content providers will not necessarily result in lower prices being charged to residential Internet subscribers. This is true under a robust set of assumptions. Despite some parties’ mischaracterization of the economic literature, price discrimination by broadband providers against third party applications and content providers will reduce societal welfare for numerous reasons. This reduction in societal welfare is especially acute when price discrimination is taken to the extreme of exclusive dealing between broadband providers and content providers. Antitrust and consumer protection laws are insufficient to protect societal welfare in the absence of open broadband rules. |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:604&r=ict |
| By: | Schmid, Oliver |
| Abstract: | Obwohl Malware und Spam ein allgegenwärtiges Problem im Internet sind, existieren bislang nur wenige wissenschaftliche Arbeiten über die Kosten, die durch diese beiden Formen der Internetkriminalität verursacht werden. In dieser empirischen Untersuchung sind die Kosten von Malware und Spam unter Verwendung der Kontingenten Bewertungsmethode (Contingent Valuation Method) geschätzt worden. Hierfür waren in einer Umfrage die Zahlungsbereitschaften für die Reduzierung des Malware- bzw. Spamaufkommens erfragt worden. |
| Keywords: | malware, spam, virus, viruses, Contingent Valuation Method, costs of crime, crime, criminality, cybercrime, IT security |
| Date: | 2010–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:vpaper:41973&r=ict |
| By: | Rosston, Gregory L.; Cramton, Peter; Kwerel, Evan; Skrzypacz, Andrzej |
| Abstract: | Spectrum auctions are used by governments to assign and price licenses for wireless communications. Effective auction design recognizes the importance of competition, not only in the auction, but in the downstream market for wireless communications. This paper examines several instruments regulators can use to enhance competition and thereby improve market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:48&r=ict |
| By: | Leo, Evan; Hazlett, Thomas W. |
| Abstract: | The traditional system of radio spectrum allocation has inefficiently restricted wireless services. Alternatively, liberal licenses ceding de facto spectrum ownership rights yield incentives for operators to maximize airwave value. These authorizations have been widely used for mobile services in the U.S. and internationally, leading to the development of highly productive services and waves of innovation in technology, applications and business models. Serious challenges to the efficacy of such a spectrum regime have arisen, however. Seeing the widespread adoption of such devices as cordless phones and wi-fi radios using bands set aside for unlicensed use, some scholars and policy makers posit that spectrum sharing technologies have become cheap and easy to deploy, mitigating airwave scarcity and, therefore, the utility of exclusive rights. This paper evaluates such claims technically and economically. We demonstrate that spectrum scarcity is alive and well. Costly conflicts over airwave use not only continue, but have intensified with scientific advances that dramatically improve the functionality of wireless devices and so increase demand for spectrum access. Exclusive ownership rights help direct spectrum inputs to where they deliver the highest social gains, making exclusive property rules relatively more socially valuable. Liberal licenses efficiently accommodate rival business models (including those commonly associated with unlicensed spectrum allocations) while mitigating the constraints levied on spectrum use by regulators imposing restrictions in traditional licenses or via use rules and technology standards in unlicensed spectrum allocations. |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:wpaper:570&r=ict |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang (Department of Applied Economics, National Chung Hsing University); Michael McAleer (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands, and Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Les Oxley (Department of Economics and Finance, University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the leading journals in Neuroscience using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAM). Alternative RAM criteria are discussed for the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily include the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence score, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI- BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), and three new RAM, namely Self-citation Threshold Approval Rating (STAR), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), and Cited Article Influence (CAI). The RAM criteria are analysed for 26 highly cited journals in the ISI category of Neurosciences. The paper highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, shows that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and finds that the Eigenfactor score and PI-BETA are not highly correlated with the other RAM scores, and hence convey additional information regarding journal rankings. Harmonic mean rankings are also presented of the 13 RAM criteria for the 26 highly cited journals. It is shown that emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal to the exclusion of other informative RAM criteria can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence. |
| Keywords: | Impact factors, Immediacy, Eigenfactor, Article Influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA, STAR, IFI, Cited Article influence. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:707&r=ict |
| By: | Yoo, Christopher S. |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, the Internet has undergone an extensive re-ordering of its topology that has resulted in increased variation in the price and quality of its services. Innovations such as private peering, multihoming, secondary peering, server farms, and content delivery networks have caused the Internet’s traditionally hierarchical architecture to be replaced by one that is more heterogeneous. Relatedly, network providers have begun to employ an increasingly varied array of business arrangements and pricing. This variation has been interpreted by some as network providers attempting to promote their self interest at the expense of the public. In fact, these changes reflect network providers’ attempts to reduce cost, manage congestion, and maintain quality of service. Current policy proposals to constrain this variation risk harming these beneficial developments. |
| Keywords: | Technology and Industry |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:reg:rpubli:578&r=ict |
| By: | Juan M. Sánchez |
| Abstract: | Consumer bankruptcies rose sharply over the last 20 years in the U.S. economy. During the same period, there was impressive technological progress in the information sector (the IT revolution). At the same time, pricing of unsecured debt changed dramatically. The dispersion of interest rates rose substantially. More importantly, interest rates varied systematically with the borrowers' characteristics in 2004 but not in 1983. This suggests that changes in the information that lenders use to price debt may be behind changes in the unsecured credit market. A model of unsecured borrowing with asymmetric information is developed to analyze this hypothesis. The effect of changes in the cost of information on borrowing and bankruptcy is explained with the help of a two-period version of the model. A calibrated model is used to study the implications of the IT revolution further. Quantitative exercises show that information costs have a significant effect on the bankruptcy rate. Additionally, a drop in information costs generates other changes (e.g. the projection of the borrowers' characteristics on interest rates) similar to what has occurred over the last 20 years. |
| Keywords: | Information technology ; Consumer credit |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2010-022&r=ict |