Economics of compatibility standards and competition in telecommunication networks

The pro- and anti-competitive implications of technical compatibility standards are introduced in general terms and then applied to current issues in telecommunications policy. The demand and supply for standards under regulated monopoly and the transition to deregulation and competitive entry create a tradeoff between the traditional goal of achieving positive externalities from interconnection and the alternative goal of providing enhanced service offerings that may involve sacrificing universal connectivity. We argue that this tradeoff has affected the utilization of data communication networks in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, we identify problems of competing interests that complicate the European approach to standards “harmonization” in the case of telecommunications. We conclude by noting that the nature of standards and standard-setting process can have marked effects on the incentives to conduct private research and development.     

Where do the new U.S. immigrants live?

"Analyzing the location choices of the post-1964 U.S. immigrants results in three main findings: (1) these immigrants are more geographically concentrated than natives of the same age and ethnicity and reside in cities with large ethnic populations; (2) education plays a key role in location choice, reducing geographic concentration and the likelihood of being in cities with a high concentration of fellow countrymen and increasing the probability of changing locations after arrival in the United States; (3) internal migration within the United States occurs more frequently among immigrants than natives and facilitates the process of assimilation for the more educated individuals."     

An Exploration of Rent Seeking*

The aim of this paper is 10 survey critically the recent literature on rent seeking and Directly Unproductive Profit-Seeking Activities (DUP). The links with the related literatures on transactions costs and property rights are also explored. It is argued that a clearer understanding of wasteful competition emerges if the framework of constitutional economics is adopted. It is furthermore argued that a dynamic framework is most suitable to analyze wasteful competition     

Technology-enabled interactions in digital environments:a conceptual foundation for current and future research

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science -     

Regreso al futuro. Continuidad del diálogo sobre el trabajo y la tecnología en la OIT

La preocupación por el desempleo tecnológico no es nueva. Los debates que tuvieron lugar en el decenio de 1960 sobre la automatización reflejaban tanto optimismo como preocupación por la potencial destrucción de empleo causada por la tecnología. Al estudiar los archivos de la OIT, y en particular la información recopilada por su ṢOficina de Automatizaciónṣ, se observa que muchas propuestas actuales se debatieron durante aquel periodo, aunque nunca se tradujeron en políticas de reglamentación. La autora reabre este antiguo debate, como un buen punto de partida para abordar los problemas actuales en consonancia con el mundo del trabajo que aspiramos a construir.     

UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS AND LONG-TERM CHILD OUTCOMES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

What are the long-term effects of universal preschool programs on child outcomes? We review 26 studies using natural experiments to estimate the effects of universal preschool programs for children aged 0–6 years on child outcomes measured from third grade to adulthood. Studies comparing universal preschool with a mix of parental, family, and private modes of care show mixed effects on test scores and on measures related to health, well-being, and behavior. All estimates for outcomes related to adequate primary and secondary school progression, years of schooling, highest degree completed, employment, and earnings indicate beneficial average effects of universal preschool programs. Three of the included studies calculate benefits-to-costs ratios and find ratios clearly above one. Universal preschool tends to be more beneficial for children with low socioeconomic status and there are not consistently different effects for boys or girls. Only three studies compare two alternative types of universal preschool programs in terms of long-term outcomes.     

The Emergence of Proto-Institutions in the New Normal Business Landscape: Dialectic Institutional Work and the Dutch Drone Industry

In the current business landscape, in which technology-enabled entrepreneurship is part of the New Normal, regulatory institutional structures are in constant flux. Previous studies have framed the challenges facing entrepreneurs in mature organizational fields as avoiding the power of overbearing regulators long enough to establish the legitimacy of their ventures. In fields typified by New Normal conditions, however, regulatory frameworks for evaluating new technology-enabled ventures are often still lacking. Regulators may choose to actively reach out to entrepreneurs to arrive at a better understanding of the radical technological changes and high-frequency entrepreneurial behavioural adaptations that occur in these settings. To grasp how novel regulatory institutional structures come about in the New Normal business landscape, we conducted a processual study of the emergence of a new technology that is the Dutch remotely piloted aircraft systems (drone) industry between 2000 and 2018. Our findings show that regulatory proto-institutions result from dialectic institutional work in the form of structured interactions between entrepreneurs and regulators. Specifically, we present a process model that reveals how new regulatory structures evolve in contexts where high levels of technological and behavioural change induce systemic uncertainty, and enlarge the interdependence between entrepreneurs and regulators. We suggest that our process theory of proto-institutional emergence generalizes towards other organizational fields in which technology-enabled entrepreneurship has become the main driver of growth. Theoretically, our findings speak to the literatures on institutional work, proto-institutional emergence, and the New Normal business landscape.     

Unrelated question model with two decks of cards

In this paper, we propose a new unrelated question model for estimating the prevalence of a sensitive characteristic within a population by utilizing two decks of cards. The resultant estimator is then compared to its competitors as to efficiency and as to protection of respondents. A real data application analyzing e-cigarette use among college students is considered.     

Replicating the Levitt and Porter estimates of drunk driving

Estimates of the prevalence and risk of drinking-and-driving are a high-priority need for researchers and policymakers. Levitt and Porter (Journal of Political Economy, 2001, 109(6), 1198–1237) demonstrate how these can be recovered using publicly available information in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Although robust to systematic misreporting and sample selection and far cheaper to implement than surveys, their methodological innovations are largely ignored. We believe this arises partly from difficulty in replicating their results. This article identifies the underlying causes of replication failure and offers practical guidance for future implementation that takes advantage of the current structure of the FARS data.