Information Economics and Policy最新文献

This paper examines the effect of regulatory policies on mobile retail prices. Using quarterly data for 8 African countries for the period 2010:Q4 to 2014:Q4 we estimate structural demand and supply equations. We find that mobile termination rates (MTR) have significant positive impact on mobile retail prices. A decline in average MTR of 10% decreases average mobile retail prices by 2.5%. On the other hand, mobile number portability (MNP) has an insignificant effect on price and subscriptions in selected African countries. This may be due to inadequate implementation of MNP and consecutively low demand for porting numbers. The average market conduct in mobile telecommunications industry for selected African countries can be approximated by Cournot Nash equilibrium, while price elasticity of demand is on average $-$0.27.

We consider a departure from net neutrality by an Internet service provider (ISP) that financially discriminates among content providers through exclusive zero-rating contracts. Zero-rating is an instrument to distort competition between content providers and the manner in which consumers value content. We analyze its implications for the incentives to provide quality in the market for content and to invest in broadband infrastructure. Zero-rating makes content more expensive for consumers to use and imply a downward distortion of content quality. Content providers switch from minimal differentiation to a downward vertical differentiation outcome. Next, we find that zero-rating implies underprovision in the broadband infrastructure, which comes from a standard rent-extraction argument and a cost-alleviation channel related to the complementarity between network capacity and content quality. Finally, when implemented, zero-rating is found to be welfare reducing and detrimental to consumers.

Governments of advanced economies are extremely concerned about the illicit acquisition of information on critical technologies employed by their industries, and countering this economic espionage is quickly becoming one of their top priorities. The present paper advances the theoretical analysis of the interaction between economic espionage and counter-espionage, and presents a first approximation to an inquiry into the rationale for the influence of market competition in its dynamics. The proposed model assumes a country with a one-market economy open to international trade whose product is supplied by domestic firms. Moreover, successful economic espionage implying market entry of foreign firms would harm domestic welfare. Considering counter-espionage policy as entry barrier and sufficient efficiency in espionage and counter-espionage efforts, the analysis of the benchmark case characterized by no foreign consumer and one foreign firm suggests that demand characteristics play an important role in the complex influence of competition in espionage. Irrespective of this, optimal counter-espionage effort is always positive although negatively affected by competition.

Intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, online labour markets are at the core of the economic and policy debate about the future of work and the conditions under which we work online. We analyse the effects of an increase in the cost of on-site work induced by COVID-19-related mobility restrictions on the substitution between on-site and remote job postings and between on-site and remote hires. We benefit from the fact that the implementation of stay-at-home requirements varies by country, time and level. We use unique company data from a large European online labour market. We provide empirical evidence for a positive effect of stay-at-home restrictions on job postings and hires of remote work relative to on-site work. Overall, our results suggest that employers are substituting remote employment for on-site employment, while there is no substantial change in overall employment.

Digital contact tracing is a promising digital public health intervention to manage epidemics. However, in order to reach its full potential, the technology has to be widely adopted and used. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this has not necessarily been the case. We review the literature with a focus on how participation in digital contact tracing could be fostered and provide policy recommendations on how to increase its adoption and usage as well as recommendations for further research.

Despite the popularity of ridesharing, there is limited empirical evidence on how ridesharing activities differ across regions with different levels of accessibility and the implication for consumers. In this paper, we study the market for rides across New York City neighborhoods. We construct a novel data set that contains massive API queries on route-specific estimates of pricing, wait time, and travel time of Uber, Lyft, and the public transit. After linking this data with actual trip records of taxis, Uber, and Lyft, we document a strong pattern that ridesharing has a larger market share relative to taxis in neighborhoods with lower accessibility, defined either in terms of geographic distance to Midtown Manhattan or “economic distance” to job opportunities. Next, we estimate a discrete-choice model of demand for rides and interpret the geography of ridesharing through the lens of the model. We find that consumer surplus from ridesharing varies drastically across geography: passengers that are 5 to 15 miles (resp. more than 15 miles) from Midtown experience a 60% (resp. 19%) larger consumer surplus relative to passengers that are within 5 miles from Midtown. Over half of these gains comes from reduced wait time.

This paper analyzes the effect of the development of the Internet on the share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in total exports. We extend the Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2004) model to include the opportunity for firms to pay lower fixed export costs by exporting indirectly via well-established e-commerce platforms. SMEs self-select into the indirect exporting mode. In response to the development of the Internet, fixed costs of indirect exporting fall at a higher rate than fixed costs of direct exporting. Consequently, SMEs tend to account for a larger share in total exports as the Internet develops. Using two samples from the Exporter Dynamics Database, we find supporting evidence that the development of the Internet in the exporting country has a significant and negative effect on the share of exports by the top 5% or 25% of exporters, implying a larger share of SMEs. Moreover, we find that improved submarine cable infrastructure in the exporting country also leads to a lower share of exports by large exporters. These are in contrast to the estimated positive effect of telephone development in the exporting country, which may not disproportionately benefit indirect exporting via e-commerce platforms over direct exporting. Finally, we find an imperfect substitution relationship between e-commerce platforms and traditional intermediaries.

We estimate productivity gains and employment effects of ultrafast broadband (UFB) adoption and test whether effects differ when firms undertake complementary organizational investments. Using an IV strategy based on proximity to schools (that were targeted in the UFB roll-out), we find that UFB adoption has a positive impact on multifactor productivity (MFP) over a four year horizon and a negative impact on employment (potentially due to increased outsourcing). The positive MFP effects are most clearly observed in firms that also make complementary investments to gain the most benefit from their UFB. The negative employment effects are observed especially in firms with initial low computer intensity.

This study estimates the price elasticity of mobile voice communication in developed and developing countries using quarterly operator data from 2000 to 2017. Using a dynamic panel model through system-GMM, the study finds that the demand price elasticity is higher for operators in developed countries. Controlling for cross-price elasticity with internet data prices reveals that voice communication is a substitute for internet data usage in developed countries. Another important finding is that, for operators in developing countries, the price elasticity decreases with market development level, whereas it increases for those in developed countries. Demand for mobile voice communication is thus more sensitive to price changes in the less penetrated markets in developing countries and the mature markets in developed countries. Furthermore, over time, price elasticity has decreased across operators in developing countries, highlighting the need for updating regulatory frameworks for the telecommunications sector to reflect the sector's various developments. In addition, when formulating regulatory and tax policies, some important economic factors, such as income level and domestic market characteristics, should be considered to avoid losses in consumer welfare. The high estimated price elasticities suggest that operators do not have an obvious interest in engaging in collusive behavior that would hinder competition. Moreover, since there is no differential effect due to operators’ positions or market shares, asymmetric regulation of the dominant operators should be avoided.

Much like the music and movies industries before, the comic book industry has entered the digital markets and faces the unfair competition of unauthorized sources. I conduct a survey of comic book readers to analyse the relationship between the pirate channels and the sales of comic books from the top American publishers. My data allows me to construct a time panel of comics readers and calculate the substitution rate between the paid and unpaid channels of comics acquisition. I find that piracy is negatively related to comics sales though mainly those of limited series. Moreover, for digital comics the relationship is observable only for a smaller group of readers with high valuations of digital formats. I also show that the digital comics – both paid and unpaid – are typically considered as inferior by the readers. With the price of digitally released new comics set at the same level as their print versions, this suggests that readers who do not want to pay the full price for print copies are more likely to use pirate sources than to switch to legal digital channels. Still, both paid and unpaid readership is associated with higher interest in other types of comics-based media such as movies or video games. This suggests that comics piracy might carry some indirect positive effects. As this aspect could improve the negotiating position of comic book authors it should be studied further.