Today’s Roundup features a variety of papers from authors at organizations ranging from law schools and university economics departments to the research arm of a major investment bank. Note the paper by Grimes and Ren, which offers a rare empirical analysis of high speed Internet access and firm productivity. In addition, two articles discuss web search and social network data as tools for economic study (under the heading below of “Tech and Macroeconomics”).
(Click through to the full post to see the list of papers and abstract excerpts)
Broadband
Arthur Grimes, Cleo Ren
“We use a large New Zealand micro-survey of firms linked to unit record firm financial data to determine the impact that differing types of internet access have on firm productivity…Broadband adoption is found to boost productivity but we find no productivity differences across broadband type.”
Stefan Heng
“[M]ajor progress in rolling out broadband to unserved rural areas will not be made in the foreseeable future without state subsidies. Without having to steer a course towards the return of a monopoly in the telecommunications sector…the public sector can in this situation promote sustainable progress in telecommunication by…”
Wireless and Spectrum
Marianne D. Crowe, Marc Rysman, Joanna Stavins
“After describing a few countries’ experiences, we analyze the prospects for the U.S. market for mobile payments in retail payments, particularly the use of contactless and near-field communication technologies.”
Erwin Alampay
This paper investigates the interface between telecommunication and banking regulations and policies to provide safeguards without hindering the industry.
Tahani Iqbal
“The paper explores Pakistan’s experience in introducing MNP [mobile number portability] and will investigate the suitability of introducing the same in India and other emerging South Asian microstates such as the Maldives. The paper will also consider how phone subscribers at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) and the impact of the low-cost, low-ARPU pricing model implemented in South Asia will affect porting rates.”
Ewan Sutherland
“In the absence of a massive data collection exercise and the creation of a dynamic model of the roaming markets, interventions continue to be doomed to imprecision and unpredictable side-effects.”
Economics of the Internet
Nico Van Eijk
“This contribution discusses the functionality of search engines and their underlying business model – which is changing to include the aggregation of content as well as access to it, hence making search engines a new player on the content market.”
Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Andres Hervas-Drane
“We study competitive interaction between two alternative models of digital content distribution over the Internet: peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing and centralized client–server distribution.”
Maris Goldmanis, Ali Hortacsu, Chad Syverson, Önsel Emre
“This article examines the effect of the advent and diffusion of e-commerce on supply-side industry structure.”
Tech and Macroeconomics
Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Maximilian Podstawski, Boriss Siliverstovs
“In this paper, we investigate whether the Google search activity can help in nowcasting [i.e. estimating the current conditions of] the year-on-year growth rates of monthly US private consumption using a real-time data set…We conclude that Google searches do help improving the nowcasts of the private consumption in US.”
Florian Bersier
“This short paper aims at proposing methods to enhance current policy and practice. The first section is interested in enhancing current forecasting methods for macroeconomic activity by taking into account real-time data. The second section proposes and discusses methods using real time data to examine the time use of individuals or groups of individuals.”
Nune Hovhannisyan, Wolfgang Keller
“This paper examines the role of inward business travelers in raising a country’s rate of innovation by looking at business travel from the United States to seventy-four other countries during the years 1993-2003. We find that international business travel has a significant effect up and beyond technology transfer through international trade and foreign direct investment.”
Intellectual Property
Manuel Sojer, Oliver Alexy, Joachim Henkel
“Building on a survey with 869 professional software developers, we find that between 15% and 21% of these developers have in the past, under time pressure, reused internet code in a way disregarding potential license obligations.”
Peter S. Menell
“This article…demonstrates that intellectual property does not and should not resemble Professor Epstein’s idealized classical liberal cathedral. To the contrary, “disintegration” characterizes the intellectual property landscape.”
Annemarie Bridy
This paper “considers the draft Internet provisions of ACTA in the context of concerns … that the treaty will require signatories to mandate graduated response regimes … for online copyright enforcement. Although the Consolidated Text of ACTA, released in late April, confirms that mandatory graduated response is off the table for the treaty’s negotiators, the treaty in its current form both accommodates and promotes the adoption of graduated response.”
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Joseph A. McCahery, Erik P. M. Vermeulen.
“The paper shows a shift in the fundamental nature of corporate venture capital and provides an account of the governance structures and contractual characteristics that encourage successful alliances between corporations and venture capital funds and their portfolio companies.”
Min-Seok Pang, Ali R. Tafti, Mayuram S. Krishnan
“This paper aims at exploring value creation from information technologies in not-for-profit organizations such as governments.”
Warigia Bowman
The political history of Kenya‘s ICT policymaking explains why this county, with such capable people and relatively open ICT policymaking, has struggled to keep up with its poorer neighbors.
Net Neutrality
Tim Brennan
“[A] minimum quality of service standard…addresses underlying concerns at far lower cost than net neutrality, while fostering innovation by allowing providers to offer higher quality service and manage congestion, with the ancillary benefit of protecting potential speech rights of content providers”
Barbara S. Esbin
“The case for regulating the Internet has not been made. Proposed rules mandating network neutrality are not in response to evidence of market failure or widespread consumer harm, could deter investment in broadband deployment, and raise First Amendment concerns.”
Privacy and Security
Anupam Chander
“Corporate social responsibility theory has focused largely on the risks of a global supply chain in goods, neglecting the questions raised by the rise of global information services….I argue that information service providers bear a special responsibility to unfree people.”
Daniel Garrie, The Honorable Maureen Duffy-Lewis, Richard Gillespie,Rebecca Wong
“In this Article, we wish to focus our attention on the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (DPD), which the European Commission enacted in 1995…. strictly applying the DPD to some [social network] users – in particular, those acting as “data controllers” under the DPD – is highly problematic and impractical.”
Internet Governance
Chris Reed
“[S]tates should attempt to reduce the reach of their laws into cyberspace except where doing so is the only way to protect an essential interest of the state.”
Basic Science
Benjamin F. Jones
As science advances and knowledge accumulates, ensuing generations of innovators spend longer in training and become more narrowly expert, shifting key innovations (i) later in the life cycle and (ii) from solo researchers toward teams. This paper summarizes the evidence that science has evolved – and continues to evolve – on both dimensions.
Energy
Paolo Nardi
“This work analyses the debate among the European Commission (EC), Member States (MS) and vertically integrated utilities (VIUs) on the introduction of ownership unbundling, suggesting three different interpretative keys: the “pure pro-market” model, the “capture by lobbies” model and the “struggle for geopolitical supremacy” model.”
Until next time!
Net Neutrality or Minimum Quality Standards: Network Effects vs. Market Power Justifications Tim Brennan
“[A] minimum quality of service standard…addresses underlying concerns at far lower cost than net neutrality, while fostering innovation by allowing providers to offer higher quality service and manage congestion, with the ancillary benefit of protecting potential speech rights of content providers”
Net Neutrality: A Further Take on the Debate
Barbara S. Esbin
“The case for regulating the Internet has not been made. Proposed rules mandating network neutrality are not in response to evidence of market failure or widespread consumer harm, could deter investment in broadband deployment, and raise First Amendment concerns.”
Privacy and Security
Anupam Chander
“Corporate social responsibility theory has focused largely on the risks of a global supply chain in goods, neglecting the questions raised by the rise of global information services….I argue that information service providers bear a special responsibility to unfree people.”
Data Protection: The Challenges Facing Social Networking
Daniel Garrie, The Honorable Maureen Duffy-Lewis, Richard Gillespie,Rebecca Wong
“In this Article, we wish to focus our attention on the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (DPD), which the European Commission enacted in 1995…. strictly applying the DPD to some [social network] users – in particular, those acting as “data controllers” under the DPD – is highly problematic and impractical.”
Internet Governance
Think Global, Act Local: Extraterritoriality in Cyberspace
Chris Reed
“[S]tates should attempt to reduce the reach of their laws into cyberspace except where doing so is the only way to protect an essential interest of the state.”
Basic Science
As Science Evolves, How Can Science Policy?
Benjamin F. Jones
As science advances and knowledge accumulates, ensuing generations of innovators spend longer in training and become more narrowly expert, shifting key innovations (i) later in the life cycle and (ii) from solo researchers toward teams. This paper summarizes the evidence that science has evolved – and continues to evolve – on both dimensions.
Energy
Paolo Nardi
“This work analyses the debate among the European Commission (EC), Member States (MS) and vertically integrated utilities (VIUs) on the introduction of ownership unbundling, suggesting three different interpretative keys: the “pure pro-market” model, the “capture by lobbies” model and the “struggle for geopolitical supremacy” model.”
