This paper evaluates the use of static cost proxy models in setting forward-looking prices such as the prices set according to the FCC's TELRIC methodology. First, it compares the time paths of prices and depreciation under traditional regulatory accounting with the prices and depreciation...

This paper reviews the book "Cost Proxy Models and Telecommunications Policy"

I empirically examine the impact of the liberalization and regulatory process on the Latin American telecommunications sector during the period 1990-1998. I find that privatisation and the existence of an independent regulator are positively associated with teledensity and operating efficiency...

The paper investigates, in a non-technical fashion, the economic determinants of interchange fees in payment card systems and the potential need for their regulation. Among other things, it demonstrates that the proposal for a cost-based regulation of interchange fees relies on an erroneous,...

Multi-Sided platform markets have two or more different groups of customers that businesses have to get and keep on board to succeed. These industries range from dating clubs (men and women), to video game consoles (game developers and users), to payment cards (cardholders and merchants), to...

Restructuring brings market incentives into formerly monopolized network industries and raises a host of questions about whether the carrot of profit seeking can be disciplined by the stick of competition. In the telephone industry access pricing is an issue, and major problems are illustrated....

Open payment card networks typically coordinate the activities of thousands of financial institutions that issue cards, millions of retail locations that accept them, and several hundred million consumers that use them. This coordination can include the collective setting of certain prices and...

We trace the development of incentive regulation in the U.S. telecommunications, electricity, and natural gas industries. Telecom has moved much more in the direction of pure price cap regulation. Incentive regulation in electricity and gas has generally not strayed far from rate-of-return...

In a critique of my paper "Technological Incompatibility, Endogenous Switching Costs and Lockin", Haucap (2003) argues that its applicability for policy purposes is limited by its reliance on the assumptions of no market growth and of the firms' ability to commit to technological compatibility....

We survey the limited data that exists concerning the cost of making/receiving a payment by banks, retailers, and other parties to a transaction. Since an electronic payment costs between one-third and onehalf that of a paper-based instrument, a country may save 1% of its GDP annually as it...