Discrete Choice Analysis of Demand for Broadband in Japan

The remarkable development of Japan’s broadband (BB) market has attracted attention worldwide. This paper is one of the first to analyze Japan’s BB demand (including FTTH) using a discrete choice model. Our main conclusions are first, there is a distinction between narrowband (NB) and BB services based on a nested choice structure. Second, considering own-price elasticities of access demand, ADSL is inelastic, but FTTH and CATV are elastic. Third, in ADSL submarkets, low-speed and high-speed ADSL are becoming more elastic.     

Analysis of Internet topology with a three‐level components model

The vertical structure of the Internet is considered as having three‐level components: backhyphen‐bone‐level interconnection, mid‐level transit, and local‐level access. This paper considers single and cross mergers between an integrated provider and an entrant in the different area. As a result of these mergers, cross entry, in which both integrated providers merge with the retail entrants in the other areas, is more socially desirable than single entry, in which only one firm merges, which is, in turn, preferred to no entry. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inter‐regional competition,comparative advantage and environmental federalism

In this paper, we compare endogenous environmental policy setting with centralized and decentralized governments when regions have comparative advantages in different polluting goods. We develop a two‐region, two‐good model with inter‐regional environmental damages and perfect competition in product markets, where both regions produce both goods. Despite positive spillovers of pollution across regions, the model predicts that decentralization may lead to weaker or stricter environmental standards or taxes, depending on the degree of regional comparative advantage and the extent of transboundary pollution. This suggests that federalism can lead to either a “race to the bottom” or a “race to the top,” without relying on inefficient lobbying efforts or capital competition.     

THE EMERGENCE OF EXTENDED METROPOLITAN REGIONS IN INDONESIA: JABOTABEK AND BANDUNG METROPOLITAN AREA

The Jakarta Metropolitan Region (Jabotabek) is advancing to the Bandung Metropolitan Regions (BMA) and vice versa. In fact, these two metropolitan regions are being physically integrated by giant corridors of urban regions, stretching from Serang to Cikampek, and from Bandung to Jakarta, shaping an extended metropolitan region, also called a mega-urban region. There are many factors contributing to this process, i.e. large-scale housing and new town, industrial estate, and toll road development. However, this development has created many environmental problems that should be taken into consideration in formulating development policy for the future in order to avoid environmental collapse.     

Functional Foods and the Young

Factors such as raised consciousness about human health, development of the food industry, and medicine and branches of natural science studying the relation between nutrition and health have led to the popularization of foods with proven health effects. Such foods are called functional foods. Although there is growing interest in functional foods, there are several groups of consumers that are, more than others, interested in functional foods. To examine buying behavior and attitudes toward functional food of young consumers (18–30 years old) and to determine the most interested consumers, we conducted a survey using a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 570 Croatian students. The majority of the respondents purchase functional foods, usually in supermarkets. Apart from taste, the most important functional food attribute is price/quality ratio. Respondents are buying functional foods because they believe that those foods are healthier and safer than other products. Examined market segments were based on respondents’ attitudes toward functional foods. The results of this research could be used in planning further development of the functional foods market for young consumers.     

Institutions and Cultural Heterogeneity as Determinants of National Income: A Random‐coefficients Stochastic Frontier Model

Previous research on total factor productivity (TFP) shows that cross‐country differences in income cannot be fully explained by stocks of capital (K), labor (L) and human capital (E). In addition, the omission of major production inputs or the use of proxies to estimate unobservable inputs leads to biased estimation results. This study addresses the above issues by employing a novel econometric approach and provides empirical evidence that a fixed production input, and therefore a country's income, is positively correlated with the existence of British‐style institutions and negatively correlated with cultural heterogeneity and Spanish‐style institutions. Our methodology is twofold. First, using data for 62 countries from 1980 to 2004, we regressed a random‐coefficients stochastic production frontier that allows estimating a fixed unobservable production input without using proxies. Second, the estimated fixed production input is shown to be related to colonial institutions and cultural heterogeneity by means of ordinary least squares and feasible generalized least squares regressions.     

Discrete choice model analysis of mobile telephone service demand in Japan

This paper analyzes the demand for mobile telephones including second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) by using a discrete choice model called a mixed logit model. First, we examine the substitution patterns of the demand for mobile telephones and show that demand substitutability among alternatives is stronger within the provider nest category than within the standard nest category in mobile telephone services. The closest substitute for NTT’s 3G service is NTT’s 2G service, rather than KDDI’s 3G service, for example. Second, we investigate the elasticities of demand for various functions including e-mail, Web browsing, and moving picture delivery. Consequently, we cannot observe marked differences between 2G and 3G services based on these calculated elasticities, indicating that it takes time for 3G subscribers to gain proficiency with such new services.