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What to do about an antitrust “problem” like Google?
When you dominate a marketplace, you can expect a fair amount of scrutiny. After all, popular wisdom says that mere size makes anticompetitive conduct more feasible. But size (access to human and...
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Amazon is playing with fire, but shouldn’t get burned by regulators
The Titans of Silicon Valley have long battled for control of the television, that stubborn holdout in the living room that has long resisted being dragged into the Internet age. This battle heated up...
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Banning zero rating: Reducing consumer choice in the name of preserving...
Wherever they go, today’s consumers are met with promotional offers of varying degrees of attractiveness – from discounts and referral prizes, to free samples, to the opportunity to test new features....
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Usage-based pricing: A step up in fairness and effectiveness
It is a truth universally acknowledged in the world of economics that a good or service that is ”free” to the user (after a flat-rate fee to access it – which may be zero – has been paid) will be...
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Ending the debate: Copyrights are property rights – Pt. 1
AEI just published my paper, “Can Economic and Historical Analyses End Copyright Law’s Property/Monopoly Disputes?” It rejects three claims asserting that copyrights are best understood as dangerous...
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Ending the debate: Copyrights are property rights – Pt. 2
My recent paper “Can Economic and Historical Analyses End Copyright Law’s Property/Monopoly Disputes?” rejects three variants of claims that copyrights are best understood as dangerous “monopolies.”...
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Three things economists wish the FCC knew about broadband markets
A funny thing happens when economists get together: They discuss the real impacts of public policy. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) participated in these discussions?...
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Government-funded fiber broadband: Not as straightforward as it sounds
As public interest groups continue to press for government-run fiber networks here in the US, it is instructive to look to a country that has already gone down that path: New Zealand. It has been seven...
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Regulation by narrative, Part I: How to turn the Internet into a monopoly
In a recent talk summarizing a new paper, Tim Brennan — who was chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at the height of the net neutrality wars — called the agency’s 2015 Open...
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Wheeler channels Bernie to regulate set-top boxes
It is all too clear who is running the FCC these days, and it’s not Chairman Wheeler. In a January 27 op-ed in Re/code, Chairman Wheeler announced his intention to have the FCC begin regulating...
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NFL’s non-exclusive deal reveals truth about competition in broadcast markets
Yes, we are ready for some football! And both CBS and NBC know it. Why else would they each agree to pay the NFL an estimated $225 million for the rights to broadcast five Thursday night games each?...
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Bricks vs clicks: What Amazon’s offline retail stores say about online shopping
Back in November, Amazon created waves when it opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Seattle’s University Village. Many questioned Amazon’s rationale; the giant did, after all, make its name from...
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Neutrality is a great idea. The FCC should try it.
Neutrality is a foundational idea in telecommunications regulation. At the core of this concept is the expectation that regulators don’t take sides — not among competing firms, and not among...
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Seven steps to ensure you become overregulated
Remember the good old days, when Silicon Valley was all about creating cool stuff, taking risks, and making people say, “Wow!”? Now it seems the headlines are much more focused on the valley’s...
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How much are you prepared to pay for subsidized fiber?
In many past blogs for TechPolicyDaily.com, I have drawn attention to the eye-wateringly large costs of subsidized fiber broadband networks and questioned the relative benefits they offer compared to...
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Playing fiber “policy monopoly” is a risky game
Competition in international policymaking is unequivocally a good thing. When different jurisdictions adopt different policies, comparisons allow everyone to learn about what works best under different...
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Google, Go, Gelernter, and the future of artificial intelligence
When the computer AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol — who is perhaps the world’s top Go player — by a match score of 4-1 last week, Google’s DeepMind division showed that artificial intelligence (AI) is...
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What Twitter’s NFL purchase says about antitrust and the need for regulation
In a surprise upset against Amazon and Verizon, Twitter has won the rights to live stream 10 NFL Thursday Night games. The win is a shift for Twitter, which is not known for the purchase of original...
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Non-neutral net neutrality: Asymmetric regulation strikes again!
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was becoming evident that regulators had effectively “picked a winner” in the Internet marketplace by applying the provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications...
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The cost of regulating special access: A 55 percent investment decrease
Often, an economist’s role in public policy is to explain obvious things that for some reason are being missed. This includes simple truths such as these: Only a monopoly can have monopoly power,...
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