Competition and Technical Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry

Competition and Technical Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry PDF Author: Nakil Sung
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 9780815330073
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
One of the most important public policy questions in the enactment of the U.S. Communication Act of 1996 was whether to allow competition in the local and regional telephone markets. While competition in the long distance telephone market, introduced in the 1960s, is flourishing, local telephone companies, including Baby Bells, still maintain their monopoly position, but rapid technological advances in telecommunications are eroding the established market structure.From the viewpoint of economies, the transition to competitive local and regional telephone markets may be justified only if local telephone companies are not natural monopolies, and if local telephone companies' productivity growth is poorer than that of their competitors. This study presents new pro-competitive evidence on the cost structure of local and regional telephone markets and shows a markedly faster growth in productivity of a competitive long distance telephone company than of local telephone monopolies.This book presents two types of analyses: measurement of total factor productivity (TFP) growth, and the estimation of various cost functions. By considering competitiveness in both analyses, the effect of competition on cost decline or productivity growth is traced, and the relationship between competition and natural monopoly is examined. The author also revives arguments for embodied technical change, which have been ignored in economic literature for a decade.

Competition and Technical Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry

Competition and Technical Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry PDF Author: Nakil Sung
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 9780815330073
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
One of the most important public policy questions in the enactment of the U.S. Communication Act of 1996 was whether to allow competition in the local and regional telephone markets. While competition in the long distance telephone market, introduced in the 1960s, is flourishing, local telephone companies, including Baby Bells, still maintain their monopoly position, but rapid technological advances in telecommunications are eroding the established market structure.From the viewpoint of economies, the transition to competitive local and regional telephone markets may be justified only if local telephone companies are not natural monopolies, and if local telephone companies' productivity growth is poorer than that of their competitors. This study presents new pro-competitive evidence on the cost structure of local and regional telephone markets and shows a markedly faster growth in productivity of a competitive long distance telephone company than of local telephone monopolies.This book presents two types of analyses: measurement of total factor productivity (TFP) growth, and the estimation of various cost functions. By considering competitiveness in both analyses, the effect of competition on cost decline or productivity growth is traced, and the relationship between competition and natural monopoly is examined. The author also revives arguments for embodied technical change, which have been ignored in economic literature for a decade.

Competition and Techincal Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry

Competition and Techincal Change in the U.S. Telephone Industry PDF Author: Nakil Sung
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 1000526054
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
First published in 1997. While local telephone companies still maintain their monopolistic position, rapid technological advance in telecommunications is destroying the established market structure in the local telephone industry. The U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 aimed at eliminating any legal barrier which has suppressed technically feasible local competition. This study attempts to provide pro-competitive evidence on the technological or cost structure of the U.S. local telephone industry. In particular, the study presents strong evidence against cost subadditivity of local telephone companies and shows that local telephone companies have been isolated from the disciplinary effects of competition in comparison with their competitive counterparts. The study not only has policy implications for entry and competition in local telephone markets, but also provides a new approach to the measurement of embodied technical change.

Changing the Rules

Changing the Rules PDF Author: Robert W. Crandall
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815723103
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Since 1971 competition has begun to replace regulation as a governing force in the telecommunications industry. The breakup of the national telephone monopolies, technological advances, and the worldwide network in telecommunications have brought a revolution in the telecommunications equipment and services industries. These changes have forced legislators and regulators to rethink public policy toward communications. The papers in this book were first presented at a conference organized by Robert Crandall and Kenneth Flamm, pulling together a group of industry professionals and scholars to address the far-reaching implications of the upheaval in the communications industry. The contributors analyze the effects of this increasing competition on standardization, technical innovation, and international rivalry. Changing the Rules offers possible policy options and analyzes their potential effects on the future market structure and the competitive positions of the U.S. computer and communications industries.

After the Breakup

After the Breakup PDF Author: Robert W. Crandall
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815705338
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The U.S. telecommunications industry has undergone dramatic changes in recent years that have touched almost every American home and business. The average American can dial almost anywhere in the world directly, store and forward a message, or transmit a fax in less than a minute; often for less than the real cost of a 500-mile telephone call tweny-five years ago. The combination of telecommunications breakthroughs, competition among new and old carriers, and the AT&T breakup has transformed the telephone industry and provided customers with a new array of equipment and services. Robert W. Crandall examines the effects of the AT&T breakup and weighs the costs and benefits to the residential and business consumer. On balance, he finds that the efficiency gains from opening up the telephone industry have more than offset the possible efficiency losses, which may be caused by the sacrifice of economies of scale and scope or the absence of fully compatible equipment and services. The replacement of regulation with competition has led to greater productivity in the telephone industry, a more efficient rate structure, and lower equipment prices. Crandall traces the telecommunications evolution from its early beginnings as pairs of copper wires up through the historic 1982 decision to divest. He investigates the impact of technological changes, competition, and the advent of divestiture on the quality of service, local and interexchange service rates, productive efficiency, and income distribution. He also focuses on problems that linger after the breakup in the increasingly competitive but highly regulated sector.

Technical Change, Markup, Divestiture and Productivity Growth in the U.S. Telecommunications Industry

Technical Change, Markup, Divestiture and Productivity Growth in the U.S. Telecommunications Industry PDF Author: M. Ishaq Nadiri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Telecommunication
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description


Talk is Cheap

Talk is Cheap PDF Author: Robert W. Crandall
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815719701
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
The rapid pace of technological change is placing the world's telephone companies in a very difficult position. Fiber optics cables, wireless telephones, digital signal compression, and sophisticated new switching equipment are lowering the cost of providing service and opening the gates to new competition. At the same time, these new technologies are providing the telephone companies with a wide array of new market opportunities. Unfortunately, their status as regulated carriers makes it difficult to exploit these new opportunities and to fend off competitive assaults on their traditional telephone business. As long as they are regulated, they can be accused of using their monopoly services to cross-subsidize new competitive ventures. But partial deregulation and open entry would be a catastrophe for them unless they were allowed to revise their rate structure. There is a widespread misconception that the U.S. telecommunications industry has been "deregulated" and that Canadian authorities are following the U.S. lead. In fact, most services remain regulated, even though some markets, such as long-distance services, equipment sales and rentals, and local services, have been opened up. This book reviews the recent changes in the structure of U.S. and Canadian telecommunications industries and the changes in regulatory policy on both sides of the border. The authors analyze the effects of these changes in regulation on telephone rates in both the local and long-distance markets with particular emphasis on the impacts of regulatory reforms and competition on long-distance rates. They use their results to suggest how regulation should be structured to allow competition to replace monopoly on the road to the information superhighway. The authors contend that for decades misguided regulation of the telephone sector in both Canada and the U.S. denied consumers the benefits of competition, distorted local and long-distance telephone rates, and blocked en

Competition in Telecommunications

Competition in Telecommunications PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Laffont
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262621502
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The authors analyze regulatory reform and the emergence of competitionin network industries using the state-of-the-art theoretical tools ofindustrial organization, political economy, and the economics ofincentives.

Competition in the Communications Marketplace

Competition in the Communications Marketplace PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Communication and technology
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description


Competition in the telecommunications industry

Competition in the telecommunications industry PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Communication and traffic
Languages : en
Pages : 1348

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Book Description


The Competitive Status of the U.S. Electronics Industry

The Competitive Status of the U.S. Electronics Industry PDF Author: John G. Linvill
Publisher: National Academies
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
This eight-chapter report is one of seven industry-specific studies conducted to identify global shifts of industrial technological capacity on a sector-by-sector basis, to relate those shifts in international competitive industrial advantage to technological and other factors, and to assess future prospects for further technological change and industrial development. The methodology of the studies included a series of panel meetings involving discussions between experts, resource personnel, and government agency and congressional representatives. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 examine, respectively, the challenge to United States' leadership in electronics, financial and human resource constraints, and barriers to international trade. Chapters 3 to 7 focus respectively on: the semiconductor industry (considering its size, structure, and international position, the semiconductor manufacturing process, and bases for competition); the computer industry (considering its size, structure, and international position, its changing economics, and bases for competition); the telecommunications industry (considering its size, structure, and international position, developments in transmission technology, and bases for competition); and the consumer electronics industry (examining its size and international position and the factors of Japanese success in the industry). Chapter 8 considers research, capital formation, human resource, and international trade policy options for the U.S. electronics industry. (JN)