Journal Article10.1007/S11149-014-9266-7
Weak versus strong net neutrality
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a framework to classify and evaluate the impact of net neutrality regulations on the allocation of consumer attention and the distribution of surplus between consumers, ISPs and content providers.
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Abstract: This paper provides a framework to classify and evaluate the impact of net neutrality regulations on the allocation of consumer attention and the distribution of surplus between consumers, ISPs and content providers. While the model provided largely nests other contributions in the literature, here the focus is on including direct payments from consumers to content providers. With this additional price it is demonstrated that the type of net neutrality regulation (i.e., weak versus strong net neutrality) matters for such regulations to have real effects. In addition, we provide support for the notion that strong net neutrality may stimulate content provider investment while the model concludes that there is unlikely to be any negative impact from such regulation on ISP investment. Counter to many claims, it is argued here that ISP competition may not be a substitute for net neutrality regulation in bringing about these effects.
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Citations
Net Neutrality: A Fast Lane to Understanding the Trade-offs
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide perspective by framing issues in terms of the positive economic factors at work, and highlight the economic conflicts behind the arguments put forward by the different parties.
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Zero-Rating and Vertical Content Foreclosure
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study zero-rating, a practice whereby an Internet service provider (ISP) that limits data consumption exempts certain content from that limit, and find that zero-rated and vertical integration are complementary in improving social welfare, though potentially at the expense of lower profit to an unaffiliated content provider.
41
Mapping and measuring the information society: A social science perspective on the opportunities, problems, and prospects of broadband Internet data in the United States
TL;DR: In this review, the dynamic nature of broadband data will be discussed and the tradeoffs of pursuing further investments to create better databases evaluated, and a more fruitful research path would be to recognize and work around existing data drawbacks.
29
Net Neutrality Policies and Regulation in the United States
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the academic literature relating to net neutrality and find that the answer to the question of whether regulations are beneficial is "it depends", and the scenarios that give different answers are realistic, it would seem that the policy approach should favor applying competition and consumer protection laws that address problems when they occur rather than ex ante regulations.
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The exclusion of competing one-way essential complements: implications for net neutrality
Sébastien Broos,Axel Gautier +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the incentives of internet service providers (ISPs) to break net neutrality by excluding competing one-way essential complements, i.e. internet applications competing with their own products.
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References
Competition in Two-Sided Markets ¤
TL;DR: In this article, the authors survey recent theoretical work on two-sided markets and the main questions are (i) what determines which side of the market is subsidized (if either) in order to attract the other side, and (ii) is the resulting outcome socially e¢cient?
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Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the concept of network neutrality in telecommunications policy and its relationship to Darwinian theories of innovation and consider the record of broadband discrimination practiced by broadband operators in the early 2000s.
Net neutrality and investment incentives
Jay Pil Choi,Byung-Cheol Kim +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the effects of net neutrality regulation on investment incentives for Internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers (CPs), and their implications for social welfare, showing that the ISP's decision on the introduction of discrimination across content depends on a potential trade-off between network access fee and the revenue from the trade of the first priority.
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The Debate on Net Neutrality: A Policy Perspective
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a game-theoretic model to address two critical issues of NN: (1) who are gainers and losers of abandoning NN? (2) will broadband service providers have greater incentive to expand their capacity without NN, and they found that if the principle of net neutrality is abolished, the broadband service provider stands to gain from the arrangement, as a result of extracting the preferential access fees from content providers.
212
The Economics of Product-Line Restrictions With an Application to the Network Neutrality Debate
TL;DR: In this article, the welfare effects of product line restrictions, such as those called for by some proponents of network neutrality regulation, are examined for a platform that brings together households and application providers, and the authors find that restricting a monopoly platform to a single product has the following effects: (a) application providers that would otherwise have purchased a low-quality variant are excluded from the market; (b) applications "in the middle" of the market utilize higher and more efficient qualities; and (c) applications at the top utilize lower and less efficient qualities than otherwise.
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