David F. Weiman

David Gabel

This book addresses the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. New entrants must have access to customers in a competitive industry, but the very nature of network industries limits potential entrants. The large fixed and sunk costs of constructing networks and the difficulty in acquiring the expertise and competencies embodied in the managerial and organizational structure of incumbents in the network industry make it difficult to enter this marketplace. As a result, new entrants, realizing that they may not be able to provide customers with service comparable to that of the incumbents, often look to negotiate an interconnection agreement. This book is divided into two parts. Part I assesses regulation and pricing access in network industries from an analytical and policy perspective. Part II presents a variety of case studies examining interconnection issues over time and across industries. The book concludes with the idea that no single economic model or theory is appropriate for all network industries and that one needs to factor in the policy objectives, economic forces, and trade-offs for the specific industry before arriving at a final policy decision.

The Regulation and Pricing of Access[presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Columbia University Institute for Tele-Information on November 5, 1993]

Opening Networks to Competition

Joshua L. Rosenbloom

Paul W. Rhode

This book challenges the static, ahistorical models on which Economics continues to rely. These models presume that markets operate on a "frictionless" plane where abstract forces play out independent of their institutional and spatial contexts, and of the influences of the past. In reality, at any point in time exogenous factors are themselves outcomes of complex historical processes. They are shaped by institutional and spatial contexts, which are "carriers of history," including past economic dynamics and market outcomes. To examine the connections between gradual, evolutionary change and more dramatic, revolutionary shifts the text takes on a wide array of historically salient economic questions—ranging from how formative, European encounters reconfigured the political economies of indigenous populations in Africa, the Americas, and Australia to how the rise and fall of the New Deal order reconfigured labor market institutions and outcomes in the twentieth century United States. These explorations are joined by a common focus on formative institutions, spatial structures, and market processes. Through historically informed economic analyses, contributors recognize the myriad interdependencies among these three frames, as well as their distinct logics and temporal rhythms.

David F. Weiman

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