Download Free Competition Aspects Of Pricing Access To Networks Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Competition Aspects Of Pricing Access To Networks and write the review.

"The question which this report addresses is how the Commission should seek to ensure the success of initiatives taken with a view to liberalising the network industries. In other words, the key question is not 'how should a regulatory authority establish network access prices within the framework of its own particular objectives and institutional arrangements?' but 'within the framework of European competition law, how should the Commission take a view as to whether a particular set of network access prices is anti-competitive?'"--Introduction.
The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.
Using numerous practical examples,this book examines the evolution of EC telecommunications law following the achievement of liberalisation, the main policy goal of the 1990s. After reviewing the development of regulation in the run-up to liberalisation, the author identifies the methods used to direct the liberalisation process and tests their validity in the post-liberalisation context. A critical analysis is made of the claim that competition law will offer sufficient means to regulate the sector in the future. Particular emphasis is given to the way in which EC Competition Law changed in the 1990s using the essential facilities doctrine, an expansive non-discrimination principle and the policing of cross-subsidisation to tackle what were then thought of as regulatory matters. Also examined within the work is the procedural and institutional interplay between competition law and telecommunications regulation. In conclusion, Larouche explores the limits of competition law and puts forward a long-term case for sector-specific regulation, with a precise mandate to ensure that the telecommunications sector as a whole fulfils its role as a foundation for economic and social activity.
The authors analyze regulatory reform and the emergence of competitionin network industries using the state-of-the-art theoretical tools ofindustrial organization, political economy, and the economics ofincentives.
David Gabel and David F. Weiman The chapters in this volwne address the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises the important policy questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. To foster rivalry in any industry, suppliers must have access to customers. But unlike in other sectors, the very organization of network industries creates major impediments to potential entrants trying to carve out a niche in the market. In traditional sectors such as gas, electric, rail, and telephone services, these barriers take the form of the large private and social costs necessary to duplicate the physical infrastructure of pipelines, wires, or tracks. Few firms can afford to finance such an undertaking, because the level of sunk costs and the very large scale economies make it extremely risky. In other newer sectors, entrants face less tangible but no less pressing constraints. In the microcomputer industry, for example, high switching costs can prevent users from experimenting with alternative, but perhaps more efficient hardware platforms or operating systems. Although gateway technologies can reduce these barriers, the installed base of an incumbent can create powerful bandwagon effects that reinforce its advantage (such as the greater availability of compatible peripherals and software applications). In the era of electronic banking, entrants into the automated teller machine· (A TM) and credit card markets face a similar problem of establishing a ubiquitous presence.
Competition policies have long been based on a scholarly tradition focused on static models and static analysis of industrial organisation. However, recent developments in industrial organisation literature have led to significant advances, moving beyond traditional static models and a preoccupation with price competition, to consider the organisation of industries in a dynamic context. This is especially important in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) network industries where competition centres on network effects, innovation and intellectual property rights, and where the key driver of consumer benefit is technological progress. Consequently, when an antitrust intervention is contemplated, a number of considerations that arise out of the specific nature of the ICT sector have to be taken into account to ensure improved consumer welfare. This book considers the adequacy of existing EU competition policy in the area of the ICT industries in the light of the findings of modern economic theory. Particular attention is given to the implications of these dynamic markets for the competitive assessment and treatment of the most common competitive harms in this area, such as non-price predatory practices, tying and bundling, co-operative standard setting, platform joint ventures and co-operative R&D.
Using tools of modern industrial economics Urs Meister examines the effects of privatisation and competition in the piped water industry. Considering the two main approaches for competition in an industry with natural monopoly character, common carriage (interconnection) and franchise bidding (auctions), he analyses costs, retail prices and investment. Such analysis shows that competition may be a valuable opportunity to improve the efficiency of water supply.
This book explores the wave of liberalization reforms experienced by OECD network industries. Focusing on the telecommunications sector, the authors analyze the latest data available on liberalization and privatization, and following a political economics approach, they integrate standard economic analysis with the most recent studies of the political determinants of market-oriented policies. The book presents new econometric evidence on several policy issues, including institutional complementarities dynamics, the problem of policy sequencing and the role of government political ideology. The detailed and comprehensive discussion offers insights into how so many countries adopting similar reforms actually differ in their policy “bundling”, intensity and implementation of liberalization and privatization.