The structure of telephone tariffs

This paper compares the structure of telephone tariffs adopted by three types of organisation: government-owned systems responsible for both posts and telephones, government-owned systems responsible for telephones alone, and privately-owned telephone systems. It is found that privately-owned systems are significantly more likely to adopt three or more peak-load pricing periods. They are also more likely to differentiate tariffs by category of subscriber, and to offer lower rates for shared lines, but these differences are only significant if private telephone systems are compared with government systems responsible for both posts and telephones. Postal responsibility alone has little or no effect on these aspects of tariffs. The paper thus provides limited support for the view that ownership systematically affects behaviour.     

Driving information communication technology for tax revenue mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study explores whether increasing Information and Technology Communication (ICT) boosts government revenue mobilization for sustainable development in 48 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2004 to 2020. While total tax revenue non-resource as a percentage of GDP and tax revenue as a percentage of GDP are used to proxy for tax revenue mobilization, three ICT measures are used, namely; the telephone penetration rate, the mobile phone penetration rate and internet penetration rate. To perform the analysis, we adopt the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The empirical findings are as follows. First, while the calculated net impacts are substantially positive, the corresponding marginal ICT effects utilized for calculating net effects are extremely negative. Second, an extensive study is carried out to determine complementing policy thresholds. These thresholds include: 21.959 (per 100 people) telephone penetration for total income from tax revenue; 16.333 (per 100 people) internet penetration for total income from tax; 21.125 internet penetration (per 100 people) for the income from the tax on non-resource income. This study has policy relevance, and implications as the penetration of the ICT rate can be influenced by policies to mobilize government revenue effectively.     

Estimating the impact of low-income universal service programs

This policy study uses U.S. Census microdata to evaluate how subsidies for universal telephone service vary in their impact across low-income racial groups, gender, age, and home ownership. Our demand specification includes both the subsidized monthly price (Lifeline program) and the subsidized initial connection price (Linkup program) for local telephone service. Our quasi-maximum likelihood estimation controls for location differences and instruments for price endogeneity. The microdata allow us to estimate the effects of demographics on both elasticities of telephone penetration and the level of telephone penetration. Based on our preferred estimates, the subsidy programs increased aggregate penetration by 6.1% for households below the poverty line. Our results suggest that automatic enrollment programs are important and that Linkup is more cost-effective than Lifeline, which calls into question a recent FCC (2012) decision to reduce Linkup subsidies in favor of Lifeline. Our study can inform the evaluation of similar universal service policies for Internet access.     

Disconnecting: Understanding decline in universal service

At a time when choices for voice service and funding for universal service were growing, the United States experienced an unprecedented drop in household telephone penetration. Universal service in voice telephony is generally taken for granted in the United States. However, recent data from the FCC shows a significant decline in the number of U.S. households that have a telephone of any kind (including mobile), from a peak in telephone penetration of 95.5% in March 2003 down to 92.9% in November 2005. This decline is both statistically significant and meaningful, as approximately 2.6% of U.S. households could not easily reach 911 for emergencies. This study uses regression analysis of state-level data to determine what drove this decline in universal service. The results demonstrate that the recent decline in universal service in the U.S. is driven by an increase in black population, inadequate consumer protection laws, and increases in wireless telephones per capita. Lifeline effectiveness does not appear to mitigate the decline in penetration, while Link-Up effectiveness may have a limited effect.     

Local exchange competition in early US network development: considerations for developing countries

This paper examines the claim that competition between the Bell system and independent telephone companies, and not AT&T's regulated monopoly, was responsible for the rapid growth in telephone penetration in the United States. A mathematical model is developed to test if competition contributed to network expansion, when alternative explanations such as diffusion and economic growth are also taken into account. The model is estimated with time series data on telephone penetration in the US from 1876 to 1982, using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS). The results indicate that local exchange competition is indeed a significant influence on increase in telephone penetration, even in the early stages of network development. This has clear policy implications for the current transition to competition in developing countries.     

Telecommunications productivity,catch-up and innovation

This study examines telecommunications productivity, technological catch-up and innovation in 74 countries for the period 1991–1995. A summary of partial productivity indicators is presented, and total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated using the Malmquist productivity change index. Decomposition of the Malmquist index provides preliminary evidence that developing countries can enhance productivity through catch-up. An econometric model is estimated that relates innovation to market size and two measures of market structure, viz., market concentration and private ownership. Model estimates support the Schumpeterian hypothesis that market size is conducive to innovation. However, the hypothesis that concentration (the dominant carrier’s share of international message telephone service (IMTS) traffic) is positively related to innovation is rejected. Finally, the model suggests that increased private ownership of the dominant local-exchange carrier can enhance innovation.     

Property rights and transaction costs – The role of ownership and organization in German public service provision

This paper provides evidence that ownership and organization matters for the efficiency of the provision of public services. The results confirm trade-offs implied by the property rights literature and provide important policy implications regarding the organization of public service provision. We find that pure private ownership is more efficient than pure public ownership, and public ownership is more efficient than mixed ownership. The delegation of management in different legal forms also has an impact, highlighting the importance of the design of the government-operator relationship. We apply a structural approach of a production function estimation, ensuring precise determination of total factor productivity for a panel of German garbage collection firms between 2000 and 2012, followed by a projection of those total factor productivity estimates on ownership and organization.     

Deregulation in Hong Kong

Waves from the tide of deregulation that first started to rise in USA over a decade ago have washed on many distant shores, as far apart as the UK, Australia and Japan. Hong Kong is no exception. Geographically tiny, the territory of Hong Kong is a throbbing dynamo, a financial and trading centre of immense importance in the Far East. With a telephone penetration of 36 per 100 population covering over 95% of all households, it is the most developed telephone country in the region, apart from Japan.     

Strategic redirection in large management buyouts: The evidence from post-buyout restructuring activity

This study examines the nature of post-transaction restructuring activities for 32 large U.S. corporations that underwent management buyouts between 1983–89. This study (i) provides evidence on the extent and type of divestment and acquisition activities under private ownership; (ii) documents the outcomes associated with MBOs and the longevity of the buyout organization; and (iii) investigates the claim that buyouts are primarily mechanisms for breaking up public corporations and selling the pieces to related acquirers. The balance of the evidence indicates that restoring strategic focus is an essential function of the buyout for these large firms. However, the evidence also indicates that the buyout organization does continue to operate significant parts of the prebuyout firm. By far the majority of firms continue to meet their debt obligations satisfactorily during the buyout phase. Finally, the evidence indicates that asset sales to related acquirers derive more from efficiency considerations than market power.     

改制对企业绩效影响的实证分析

本文运用来自竞争性行业的451家样本企业(1994—1999年)的数据研究了改制对企业经营绩效的影响。通过产权结构作为连续变量的分析，发现国有产权对企业绩效具有显著的负作用，而非国有资本具有积极的绩效效应，其中个人资本具有最为显著的提高效益的正相关作用。在不同资本控股权的分析中，个人资本相对控股权分组的利润率显著高于国有资本相对控股权的分组，并且经营者持股比例的增加可以显著提高改善经营绩效的可能性。     

Financial and stock market variables as predictors of management buyouts

This paper investigates whether publicly held firms which change to private ownership through management buyouts (ex-public firms) possess characteristics prior to the change which differentiate them from firms which remain publicly owned. The financial characteristics of ex-public firms for the year immediately prior to going private were analyzed. A multivariate framework was developed to determine which attributes best distinguished firms going private via management buyouts from similar firms not going private. A discriminant function was developed using seven ratios: (1) concentration of ownership, (2) cash flow to net worth, (3) cash flow to total assets, (4) price/earnings ratio, (5) price/book value ratio, (6) book value of depreciable assets in relation to original costs, and (7) dividend yield. The model demonstrated a classification accuracy of 77.8 percent for the original sample and 81.4 percent in a hold-out sample validation. These findings imply that financial characteristics alone provide a means by which firms going private via management buyouts can be separated from others. Therefore one can argue that, regardless of the stated motive for going private, financial characteristics either are explicit decision variables or directly reflect non-financial reasons for management buyouts.     

Rural telephony since divestiture

This paper determines whether local rural telephone rates have increased as well as whether rural rates have increased more or less than other telephone rates since the divestiture of AT&T. Also, examined are long distance rates, penetration levels and subsidization in rural telephone markets in an attempt to ascertain whether universal service is in jeopardy in rural areas.The author would like to thank Erwin A. Blackstone, Gerald Faulhaber and Alfred E. Kahn for their helpful comments.     

Rural households in Papua New Guinea afford better diets with income from small businesses

Papua New Guinea is an economic leader in the Pacific region via its extractive resources. However, these industries do not provide employment opportunities for the country’s 6.4 million (80% of total population) rural inhabitants. Rural nonfarm enterprises (NFEs) could offer an additional source of structural change, whereby benefits are capitalized by domestic rural and urban households along the value chain. In 2018, we administered a survey to over 1000 households to gauge whether households with NFEs afford better diets. We examine the factors associated with NFE ownership using a multinomial logit (MNL) framework. We then evaluate whether welfare effects differ by the sex of the NFE owner using nearest neighbor matching to address selection into NFE ownership. Results suggest households with a NFE obtain greater levels of consumption on the order of 26% for protein per person, 11% for kilocalories per person, 13% for total yearly expenditures per person, and 10% for household dietary diversity. Results point to the resounding limitations of female-owned NFEs primarily created to cope with income risk. The findings highlight the relevance of NFEs as a poverty reduction strategy and the importance of targeting when promoting in-country entrepreneurship.     

State Ownership, Privatization and Performance in Singapore: An Exploratory Study from a Strategic Management Perspective

This paper considers the ownership debate with regard to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) performance, that is, whether superior performance of SOEs can be achieved under state ownership. While the traditional belief has been, supported by empirical work, that private ownership is generally associated with superior performance, the experience of Singapore is a clear example to the contrary. We outline global privatization trends and discuss the impact of privatization programs. We then discuss Singapore Telecom as a case where state ownership combined with several contextual and firm-related factors, especially firm strategy, has led to sustained world-class performance. We develop a theoretical framework for this analysis based on the strategic management field. We lastly outline some theoretical and practical implications of the analysis.     

A binary conflict ascending price (BICAP) mechanism for the decentralized allocation of the right to use railroad tracks

The questions posed for study are motivated by controversies over how Sweden might change from a centralized system of railroad management to a decentralized system. The central rail administration, Banverket, will retain ownership and maintenance responsibility of the tracks, but will sell access to the tracks to private firms. The questions are about the mechanism that might accomplish this task. Parties to the controversy have claimed that the technical aspects of networks will, as a matter of principle, preclude the operation of any decentralized method. This paper explores the properties of a mechanism developed as a challenge to that claim. The mechanism is examined in the context of a testbed experimental environment that contains many potential problem causing elements. In the tests performed the mechanism operated to efficiently allocate access to the network and it did so for behavioral reasons that are understandable in terms of theory. The paper closes with suggestions for further study of environments that might present additional challenges to a mechanism.     

How much does owner type matter for firm performance? Manufacturing firms in China 1998–2007

Who owns the firm (the state, private ownership, foreign investors) has long been an important topic for research on organizations. This paper estimates how much ownership contributes to firm performance, compared to other factors, including industry, region, firm size, year, and the firm itself. The data are on manufacturing firms in mainland China from 1998 to 2007. We find that the effect of owner type is significant and pervasive across regions and interacts with both geography and time, reflecting China's decentralized system and the strong trend in privatization. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Pacific Islands. Policy options for telecommunications investment

The Independent Commission for World-Wide Telecommunications Development (Maitland Commission) reported that telecommunication networks, including public telephone systems, are an infrastructure which aids economic development throughout the world. The Commissions objective is to bring the majority of the world's population within easy access of a telephone and, in time, other communications services. Development in the Pacific Islands region is slowed by a lack of efficient communications. The islands are spread over 29 million square kilometers of ocean and extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Pacific Island Nations (PINs) have problems of foreign exchange, skill shortages, and poor credit terms. Telecommunications infrastructure audits showed the overall regional teledensity of 3 telephones per 100 population. The individual countries vary form 8.3 in Fiji to 1.5 in Papua New Guinea and 25.2 in New Zealand. The population of the developing island countries is in mostly rural areas where there is a chronic shortage of telephones. The constraints on radio systems can be overcome with satellite technology. The new technologies are coming on the market faster than these countries can afford to handle them. By using satellite technology and sharing facilities PINs can greatly reduce the cost of telecommunications systems. Fiber optic cables will be used to carry large volumes of traffic over major routes while satellites can be used for a array of services for the smallest PIN nation to the largest route rim country. Work is being done to standardize the equipment specifications and to develop policies for the coordination of regional telecommunications training. To further facilitate communications development in this area, changes need to be made in international funding priorities for development, and recommendations by the Maitland Commission must be taken seriously.     

Walloon & Flemish videotex trials

This article focuses on the problems surrounding ‘compunication’, ie the growing imbrication between electronic computers and telecommunications. (The corresponding French term is télématique). More precisely, the specific problems of videotex systems thrown up by different experiments in Belgium are examined. The CCITT of the ITU uses the term videotex as the generic name referring to all systems that make it possible to gain information through telecommunication networks (Hertzian waves, cable TV distribution networks or telephone lines). Requested information appears on a TV screen (at home, in a place of work or in a public place).     

How Much Does Ownership Form Matter?

Research summary : Previous studies have emphasized firm and industry effects on variation in firm performance, but the relationship between forms of ownership and firm performance has been the focus of limited research. This article examines the extent to which ownership form (i.e., public or private ownership) and ownership structure (including diffused ownership and blockholding) affect firm performance. The results of an analysis of 30,525 European Union (EU) firms indicate that form of ownership is an important explanatory factor in the difference in performance among firms. These results underscore the need to study firms characterized by different ownership arrangements and to provide empirical evidence for the study of firm ownership in strategic management. Managerial summary : Motivated by growing evidence on the involvement of different types of owners in the strategies of firms, we studied the extent to which a firm's ownership form (type of legal incorporation, such as public and private ownership forms) and ownership structure (diffused ownership and blockholding) affect its performance. Our study of more than 30,000 firms from the European Union shows that ownership form differences explain some of the performance differences between firms. Our results also indicate that firms with different ownership forms are differently affected by their competitive environment. Overall, the study suggests that choosing the right ownership form can have important strategic consequences. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

所有权与自然垄断产业规制——组合模式及选择

对于自然垄断产业采用何种所有权结构的规制模式,在理论研究与实践操作中都存在着多样化的选择。本文主要比较分析了民营外生规制、国有内生规制和混合所有权规制三种不同组合模式,并认为混合所有权规制模式较好地兼容了其他模式的优点,可以成为自然垄断产业改革与治理进程中的一个可取路径。欧盟国家自然垄断产业的改革经验,从实践上证明了混合所有权规制模式的可行性,尽管其也存在一定的局限性。同时,本文认为对于转型改革时期的中国,针对自然垄断行业的国有企业,可以考虑采用混合所有权规制模式的改革路径,通过股权开放的形式放松民营资本进入自然垄断产业的行业管制,并有效、平稳地建立起自然垄断产业规制体系。