Although mobile payments are increasingly used in some countries, they have not been adopted widely in the United States so far, despite their potential to add value for consumers and streamline the payments system. We summarize short-term and long-term benefits from mobile payments, and analyze...

This paper analyzes the relationship between a national regulator, an incumbent and a local government in a context where investment in a new network has to be undertaken. In the light of the recent debates on the competition between private firms and local governments, we analyze the limits to...

The rapid growth of online search and its centrality to the ecology of the Internet pose important questions: why is the search engine market so concentrated, and will it evolve towards monopoly? What implications does this concentration have for consumers, search engines, and advertisers? Does...

The politically-charged notion of network neutrality came to the fore in the first decade of the 21st century, using analogy from transportation as one of the key tools in motivating arguments. This paper examines how the various notions around network neutrality (common carriage, regulation,...

This paper examines the net neutrality debate in countries outside the U.S., particularly in the EU. Most appear to have endorsed the idea of net neutrality and believe that policies promoting unbundling - mandatory network sharing - will ensure neutral networks. We argue that unbundling may not...

We address whether local ISPs should be allowed to charge content providers, who derive advertising revenue, for the right to access end-users. We compare two-sided pricing where such charges are allowed to one-sided pricing where they are prohibited. By deriving provider equilibrium actions...

Two years ago, disagreement on network neutrality stalled momentum to reform the aging Communications Act. Significantly, both sides of the debate have become hardened, in part because of differing views on the market power of Internet access providers and their ability to foreclose competition....

"Network neutrality" encompasses a wide-ranging debate over what limits, if any, should be placed on network providers in pricing or managing Internet traffic. The articles in this volume tackle various aspects of this debate: Have other transportation networks been truly "neutral"? Should...

An important issue in "network neutrality" is the degree to which networks that comprise the Internet may be "managed" by their operators. This paper examines the current costs of unmanaged/neutral network technology and demonstrates that as customer Internet usage patterns evolve and become...

Historical precedents suggest that the basic issues underlying the debate about network neutrality, dealing with the balance between efficiency and fairness in markets, will never be resolved. Should net neutrality dominate, attention would likely turn to other parts of the economy that might be...