There is an intense debate regarding the best way to attract investment for the long-term expansion of an electricity transmission network. We study three hypotheses: the long-term financialtransmission- right hypothesis; the incentive-regulation hypothesis; and the market-power hypothesis. The...

The Massachusetts public utility commission has pursued policies to promote competition and efficient pricing in telecommunications since the divestiture of AT&T in 1984. As part of this effort, the Massachusetts Commission approved incentive regulation for AT&T and Verizon the only two...

This paper reviews Garcia Mariñoso's 2001 Journal of Industrial Economics article on endogenous switching costs and product compatibility. In that paper, Garcia Mariñoso concludes that producers of so-called product systems (which consist of hardware or platforms plus applications) can have...

Automated teller machines (ATMs) have altered the relationship between banks and their depositors, as well as the competitive relationships among banks. In this paper, I survey the literature to describe the ways that ATMs have influenced these aspects of banking markets, and conclude with...

Consumers pay for hundreds of goods and services each year, but across households and across goods, consumers do not choose to pay the same way. This paper posits that payment choices depend in part on consumers' propensity to adopt new technologies and in part on the nature of the transaction....

This article provides a review and critique of the empirical literature that examines the effects of incentive regulation on retail telephone service quality in the United States. The literature provides mixed findings. Some dimensions of service quality appear to improve under incentive...

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...

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 article reviews a recent paper by Brock (2000) analyzing developments in the airline industry. Using Department of Transportation data, we attempt to verify a number of assertions made by Brock regarding changes in industry concentration and prices throughout the 1990s. We also compare a...