Examining Industry Effects for Truck Drivers

Disaggregating truck drivers by industrialclassification, rather than using a private carriagefor hire distinction, a significant wage gap isfound between drivers in trucking services and driversin all other industries. The premium for drivers intrucking services is largest relative to drivers inwholesale and retail trade and agriculture, who aremost likely to be true private carriage drivers. Drivers in construction and mining, less likely tomeet the true definition of private carriage, havesmaller wage disadvantages. This suggests that thewage gap between for-hire and private carriage driversmay be underestimated in other research.     

Convergence between telecommunications and other media: How should regulation adapt?

The paper examines the regulatory issues raised by technological convergence between telecommunications and other media. Market uncertainty for broadband services has gone hand in hand with both uncertainty over how to supply those services and a regulatory framework that will facilitate growth in the sector, ensure a competitive market and provide the necessary protections for consumers and the public. Development of the information market should be determined primarily by market forces. Intervention may be justified but a clear distinction needs to be drawn between regulation in the public interest and regulation to protect against market failure.     

Regulating audiotex: Lessons for the future development and oversight of electronic information and telecommunication services

Much can be learned from the audiotex experience regarding the future regulation of automated, recorded, live conversation and fax-based information and entertainment telecommunication services. Audiotex has raised a number of ‘carriage v content’ issues with significance for value-added multimedia services more generally. In addition, audiotex has led policy makers and practitioners alike to wrestle with the challenges posed to traditional, industry-focused regulatory regimes by the convergence of the telecommunications, broadcasting, computing and publishing industries which lies at the heart of the development of multimedia services. This paper draws heavily on events in two of the most developed domestic audiotex markets (the UK and the USA) in discussing four lessons which it is suggested both industry players and regulatory bodies take from the audiotex experience in considering the future development and oversight of electronic information and telecommunication services.     

A fresh look at zero-rating

We provide an economic assessment of zero-rating offers in the context of mobile internet access services and draw six lessons: (1) Zero-rating can have several different characteristics that crucially affect their economic and welfare assessment. Thus, regulatory interventions must be based on a careful case-by-case analysis. (2) In the context of zero-rating offers, it is often crucial to evaluate the extent to which users are able to activate and deactivate a (throttled) zero-rated tariff option. If activation/deactivation is easy and instantaneous, a sound economic theory of harm for consumers will in many cases be hard to establish. (3) Similarly, if access to zero-rated partner programs is non-discriminatory and entails low barriers to entry, a sound theory of harm for content providers will usually not be given. (4) Zero-rating can be beneficial for consumers and (legal) content providers alike by contributing to a reduction of illegal content. Combined with throttling it can mitigate congestion problems. However, by requiring all content belonging to the same content category to be treated equally with respect to throttling, independent of whether a content provider opted for zero-rating or not, the existing regulation creates a negative externality on those content providers that do not wish to be zero-rated for some reason. (5) Particular attention should be paid to the impact of throttled zero-rating tariffs on the competition between mobile network operators (MNOs) and MVNOs. The latter may not be able to compete on equal footing with MNOs, because they benefit less from the traffic management aspects of zero-rating. (6) Competition among (infrastructure-based) ISPs provides a safeguard against severe rent extraction and, thus, an abuse of throttling and zero-rating as an exploitative device. Therefore, regulators should carefully account for the competitive environment and the existing tariff portfolio and options before deciding to intervene. Competition policy, rather than ex-ante regulation, may be more suitable for this task.     

Synthetic diamond developments: perspectives from technology analysis

Synthetic diamond technology appears to have the capability of significantly changing the future technological landscape. Accordingly, The Institute for the Management of Technology regards it as a 'marker' technology. This paper suggests that there is a need to review expectations concerning synthetic diamond developments. Technology analysis is used as a method to understand and communicate the expectations. The history trends and applications are presented. Two challenges are revealed: First, High Pressure and High Temperature is being challenged by Chemical Vapour Deposition as the dominant manufacturing technology, suggesting that the latter should be monitored for breakthroughs. Second, the distinction between synthetic and natural gems is becoming harder to determine. This threat to the gem industry, in combination with the expanding industrial use, suggests that efforts should be pursued to establish the uniqueness of natural gems and to prevent the name 'diamond' from being ubiquitously used.     

Regulatory inhibitions on the development of electronic message systems in the USA

The present regulatory environment for electronic message systems in the USA is characterized by complex overlapping and blurring of jurisdictions. The author makes an argument for general deregulation of the market for EMS to allow for more competition and investment, and that, where regulation is required, the FCC be the sole regulatory agency.     

New school speech regulation as a regulatory strategy against hate speech on social media: The case of Germany's NetzDG

Germany's 2017 NetzDG law is an example of ‘new school speech regulation’ (Balkin, 2014), which restricts speech by coercing intermediaries into censoring users, rather than coercing speakers directly. It is the first such measure which specifically targets hate speech on social media, by requiring large platforms to operate complaints procedures which ensure illegal content is rapidly removed. Numerous other countries have since adopted similar regulations, indicating that states increasingly turn to new school speech regulation as a regulatory strategy to tackle hate speech on social media. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of new school speech regulation in as a regulatory strategy to address online hate speech, taking NetzDG as a case study.A review of relevant empirical literature shows that many features of social media platforms actively promote or encourage hate speech. Key factors include algorithmic recommendations, which frequently promote hateful ideologies; social affordances which let users encourage or disseminate hate speech by others; anonymous, impersonal environments; and the absence of media ‘gatekeepers’. In mandating faster content deletion, NetzDG only addresses the last of these, ignoring other relevant factors. Moreover, reliance on individual user complaints to trigger platforms' obligations means hate speech will often escape deletion. Interviews with relevant civil society organisations confirm these flaws of the NetzDG model. From their perspectives, NetzDG has had little impact on the prevalence or visibility of online hate speech, and its reporting mechanisms fail to help affected communities.NetzDG represents an incremental, narrow approach to a complex sociotechnical problem which requires more fundamental regulatory reform. In this regard, it shows the limitations of censorship-based new school speech regulation. Rules which assert state authority by prescribing censorship of narrowly-defined content categories are ill-suited to large-scale, networked, algorithmically-curated social media, where other governance mechanisms influence user behaviour more than content deletion. The paper advocates a more systemic and preventive regulatory approach. Platforms should be required to take public interest considerations into account in all design and governance processes, aiming to shape platform environments to actively discourage users from posting or viewing hate speech, rather than simply deleting it afterwards.     

Attention Platforms,the Value of Content,and Public Policy

This paper shows that two related aspects of attention platforms are important for the sound economic analysis of public policy including antitrust: first, attention platforms generate valuable content. Even though people often don’t pay for content, we know from revealed preference that content is valuable because people spend a considerable amount of time—which has an opportunity cost—consuming it. Second, demand for advertising and the supply of content are interdependent. A decrease in the demand for advertising reduces the returns to supplying content and therefore the amount of content that is provided. Accounting for the value of content and these positive feedbacks cannot determine optimal interventions; but failing to do so can result in policies that reduce consumer—as well as advertiser—welfare. The paper then considers the implications of these considerations for public policy: particularly privacy regulation and antitrust enforcement. From the standpoint of promoting consumer welfare, the failure to account for the value of content and the ad-content interdependencies increases the chances that authorities do not intervene when they should and do intervene when they should not.

     

Rediscovering strategic content in ‘strong process’ research on business network innovation

A strong process view on business networks takes ‘becoming’ as a starting point for understanding business networks and innovation. This view tends to leave the role of strategic content implicit and underdeveloped. Yet, embracing content from a process angle is important to obtain insight in the role of strategic intent and value transformation. A philosophical architecture for addressing this gap is currently lacking. In the context of business network innovation, this paper seeks to explore how content can remain theoretically relevant and how it can be inserted in a strong process view underpinning industrial marketing research.This conceptual paper makes a distinction between content-centric, process-content co-evolution, and process-centric philosophies. These are mutually exclusive and fail to cater to the gap introduced. A fourth strategy is introduced that adopts the process-centric view as a foundation but uses pragmatism and encapsulation to reach out to content research. The paper offers methodological considerations for empirical research and applies the resulting approach to industrial marketing. It concludes with implications for research in industrial marketing.     

Is there a need for platform neutrality regulation in the EU?

Motivated by the policy discussion in the EU whether to impose non-discrimination obligations for dominant online platforms, we analyse whether such regulation is warranted from an economic point of view. Our contribution is threefold. First, across several platform contexts, we identify (i) (paid) prominence of some third parties over others and (ii) the favouring of a platform's integrated services over independent entities as common discriminatory conducts of online platforms. Second, within this scope, we review the economic literature and find that discrimination in the form of paid prominence may often be in the interest of consumers. However, smaller or low-quality content providers are likely to be worse off, which gives rise to concerns regarding dynamic efficiency and long-term variety in those markets. Additional problems may arise if platform operators are vertically integrated with content providers. Third, based on these theoretical insights, we recommend that EU policy makers should not adopt a neutrality regulation for platforms prematurely. Instead, we recommend to impose new proportionate transparency rules for dominant platforms in order to facilitate the identification of actual misconduct and legal enforcement.     

Towards next generation regulation

The rapid convergence taking place between broadcasting, content and communication technologies, services and markets requires an urgent review of existing regulatory frameworks. The central question is not how to regulate convergence, but how regulation should (and must) change in the face of convergence. Although, convergence is a continuing process, the main trends are already discernible. Steps need to be taken now to clear the path of regulatory obstacles in order to facilitate convergence and delivery of its promised benefits. The risks in waiting too long are significant. This paper explores the regulatory reform required in the transition to the ‘next-generation’ regulatory frameworks needed as convergence progresses and competitive markets become increasingly necessary.     

城镇化背景下中小城市发展路径及对策研究

在现代经济中,城市是经济的重要载体,中小城市是构筑科学、合理的城镇化体系的重要支撑。要实现中小城市城镇化的科学发展,其经济增长方式必须由粗放型向集约型转变。本文基于对中小城市发展的动力机制及影响因素分析,分别从3个方面探索性的提出,城镇化背景下中小城市发展的路径在于：产业优化升级、就业协同增长和城乡统筹发展,并突出强调了产业优化升级的主导作用。     

What messages to post? Evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer markets

Although social media usage in business markets continues to grow, managers still struggle with designing popular brand message posts. This research investigates the key factors that contribute to Facebook brand content popularity metrics (i.e., number of likes and comments) for Fortune 500 companies' brand posts in business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. Building on psychological motivation theory, the authors examine key differences in B2B and B2C social media message strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, selling, and information search. Using Bayesian models, they find noteworthy differences in the propensity of viewers to popularize brand posts. Specifically, the results indicate that the inclusion of corporate brand names, functional and emotional appeals, and information search cues increases the popularity of B2B messages compared with B2C messages. Moreover, viewers of B2B content demonstrate a higher message liking rate but a lower message commenting rate than viewers of B2C content.     

Interaction between message framing and consumers’ prior subjective knowledge regarding food safety issues

This study analyzed the interaction between message frames and recipients’ prior knowledge. The hypothesis is that less prior consumer knowledge will result in a larger framing effect. That is, if the subjective knowledge of the public is low, then the controversy created by mass media regarding a specific food-related event will be larger. Empirical results show that message frame has an influence on college students’ purchasing intentions. College students showed distinct responses in purchasing intention based on different headlines and different amounts of information within articles. The results further suggest that the framing effect depends not only on message frames, but also on the prior knowledge of the message recipient. Those who have less knowledge have larger variation in their purchase intention when responding to different message frames. This suggests that people with less knowledge are more likely to panic due to mass media reports regarding a food hazard issue. More informed consumers have less dramatic responses to food safety issues compared to less informed people.     

单一市场结构下横向联盟的市场绩效与规制

本文构造了一个单一市场结构下，双寡头古诺厂商以双边协议形式建立成本节省型横向联盟的理论模型，分析了其市场绩效和规制。结论表明：在无规制条件下，伙伴厂商存在相互收取资源使用费的激励，联盟也可能存在限制竞争危害。因此，政府应该规制联盟厂商相互收取的资源使用费不得高于节省的边际成本。     

环境效率、行业异质性与最优规制强度——中国工业行业面板数据的非线性检验

面对保增长和减排放的双重约束,传统的以减排为导向的环境政策不可避免会陷入两难困境。为此,本文针对污染物不同的处置性假设,以环境效率作为唯一确定环境绩效与产业发展的关系,测算了加入环境污染因素后我国工业各行业的环境效率,并基于异质性行业假定检验了我国环境规制与环境效率的非线性关系并确定了行业最优规制水平。研究表明:若考虑非期望产出(污染排放)的影响,中国工业环境效率有明显的下降;工业环境规制与环境效率正相关,一定程度上验证了"波特假说"的正确性;其中,环境规制对清洁生产型行业当期环境效率促进作用显著,而对污染密集型行业的影响存在滞后效应;环境规制强度和环境效率之间符合倒"U"型关系,具有显著的三重非线性门槛特征,但是,不同行业环境绩效对于环境规制强度的弹性系数和极值有所差异。本文政策涵义明显:及时调整传统基于减排导向的环境政策,考虑将提高环境效率纳入环境政策的目标决策中。同时,政府切忌走入盲目提高环境规制强度的误区,应根据各行业现实特点,有针对性地制定差异化的环境规制强度和标准,并注重滚动修订,及时调整至最优水平。     

Focus on Europe: Defining telecommunication or bounding the ethereal

To Europeans the sight of a quasi-legal body, the US Federal Communications Commission, holding hearings to define the boundary between computing and telecommunication may easily seem absurd. However that distinction, and the distinction between those services and broadcasting, is crucial in both Europe and North America. Previous practical distinctions have been based on technology and so inevitably become obsolete. The US process for achieving a distinction may appear cumbersome, but it does outline the problem and the importance of the underlying issues. Europeans cannot be complacent about the need for such a definition or smug about the superiority of a regulatory process that appears to avoid that need.     

New concerns on caffeine consumption and the impact of potential regulations: The case of energy drinks

The increasing consumption of energy drinks and caffeine added products, coupled with somewhat inconsistent labeling practices, has generated health concerns from possible excessive caffeine intake. In this paper, we simulate the impacts of potential caffeine content regulatory policies on demand for energy drinks as well as caffeine and sugar consumption. We model demand for energy drinks as a function of price and product characteristics that includes both caffeine levels and the presence of labeled caffeine content. Using our demand estimation results, we simulate the impact of potential policies including mandatory caffeine content labeling, advertising restriction and caffeine content regulations. Results indicate that mandatory labeling and advertising restrictions would reduce the overall sales in the energy drinks sector, but with a limited impact. The effect of caffeine content regulation would vary depending on whether the policy is implemented on a per-ounce basis or a per-can basis. Furthermore, these policies have different impacts on sugar and caffeine consumption, and therefore policymakers should be cautious when implementing caffeine regulations.     

Universal service issues in converging communications environments: the case of the UK

Convergent trends in telecommunications and broadcasting technologies and markets have called forth a re-examination of universal service provision in the communications sector and present an opportunity to update and re-formulate its provision. In the UK, proposed changes announced in the 2000 UK Communications White Paper and subsequent 2003 Communications Act, whilst still emphasising the importance of guaranteeing universal access to stipulated key public services and content across communications, suggest a closer relationship between economic and content regulation will be developed. This paper argues that whilst it is important to consider issues of economic efficiency in the communications sector, this should neither obscure nor compromise the need to create progressive, socially responsible, universal service reflective of the requirements of 21st century users. Crucial to the delivery of such a system in the UK is an actively supportive government policy backdrop and the development of the new convergent regulator the Office of Communications as an effective regulatory force.     

FROM EXPERIENCE: Products Talking to People—Conversation Closes the Gap between Products and Consumers

Product design is a complex undertaking, requiring manufacturers to find a balance among business goals, regulatory guidelines, the requirements of the distributor and retailer, and consumer demand. Along the way, it is sometimes easy to forget that, in the end, an actual person will attempt to operate the product.
Manufacturers are skilled at collecting and analyzing data about their customers and at using this information to formulate a "brand message": those things a company wants to communicate to consumers, the expectations that should be set in the consumer's mind, and what feelings and associations consumers should take away from an interaction with the company and its products. But while this information may be useful in understanding demographic and economic aspects of consumers, it often does not help the manufacturer understand how the product and user should interact—how the product and user should "talk" to each other. Something is lost in translation as a product goes from being a conceptual instantiation of a brand to being an actual physical object that a consumer must communicate with and must manipulate. The result is an experience that reflects poorly on the product and the manufacturer.
This article presents a framework for developing the interaction between user and product, using the metaphor of conversation between people. Human beings have developed a set of conversational rules and norms over the last few thousand years, and by leveraging these standards, manufacturers can create product interactions that provide a better experience to the consumer.