Innovation and the Evolution of Market Structure for Internet Access in the United States

How and why did the U.S. commercial Internet access market structure evolve during its first decade? Commercial Internet access market structure arose from a propitious combination of inherited market structures from communications and computing, where a variety of firms already flourished and entrepreneurial norms prevailed. This setting nurtured innovative behavior across such key features as pricing, operational practices, and geographic coverage. Inherited regulatory decisions in communications markets had a nurturing effect on innovative activity. On-going regulatory decisions also shaped the market’s evolution, sometimes nurturing innovation and sometimes not. This narrative and analysis informs conjectures about several unique features of U.S. market structure and innovative behavior. It also informs policy debates today about the role of regulation in nurturing or discouraging innovation behavior.

On-demand music streaming and its effects on music piracy

In the late 1990’s, music industry revenues began to decline, mostly due to the proliferation of the Internet which enabled consumers to easily pirate music. Record companies and artists began fighting legal battles and investing in educational campaigns in an attempt to teach young people the value of intellectual property. However, the times are now starting to change. In 2016, US retail revenues from recorded music grew 11,4%, the biggest increment since 1998. Streaming revenues have now surpassed income from the sale of traditional formats. Nevertheless, there is still a big player in the market worth paying attention to: music piracy. This thesis seeks to investigate the impact on-demand streaming services have been having on illegal downloading and uncover young music consumers’ habits and preferences. Through an online survey, the study used a conjoint analysis to uncover consumers’ preference structure. It also included direct questions to assess music consumers’ characteristics and habits. The results show that ethics and perceived risk negatively influence the decision to pirate music. On the other hand, higher ethics and involvement are associated with the propensity to pay for streaming services. Also, as age increases the propensity to pay for streaming rises and the tendency to pirate decreases. Even though consumers are price sensitive, price is not always the main decision factor. Finally, we observe that streaming did in fact help to reduce the incidence of music piracy among young music consumers.No final dos anos 90, as receitas da indústria da música começaram a diminuir, principalmente devido à proliferação da Internet, que permitia aos consumidores piratear música facilmente. Discográficas e artistas começaram a travar disputas jurídicas e a investir em campanhas educacionais na tentativa de ensinar aos jovens o valor da propriedade intelectual. No entanto, os tempos estão a mudar. Em 2016, a receita associada à música cresceu 11,4%, o maior incremento desde 1998. As receitas de streaming já ultrapassaram as receitas dos formatos tradicionais. No entanto, ainda há um grande player no mercado ao qual vale a pena prestar atenção: a pirataria. A presente tese procura investigar o impacto que os serviços de streaming têm tido na pirataria de música, e compreender os hábitos e preferências dos jovens consumidores de música. Num questionário on-line, o estudo recorreu a uma análise conjoint para desvendar a estrutura de preferências dos consumidores. Também incluiu perguntas que permitiram avaliar as características e hábitos dos consumidores. Os resultados demonstram que a ética e o risco influenciam negativamente a decisão de piratear música. Por outro lado, maior ética e envolvimento estão associados a uma maior propensão a pagar por streaming. Além disso, à medida que a idade aumenta, a propensão a pagar por streaming aumenta, e a tendência para piratear diminui. Apesar dos consumidores serem sensíveis ao preço, este nem sempre é o principal fator de decisão. Finalmente, observamos que o streming ajudou a reduzir a incidência da pirataria entre os jovens consumidores de música

Entry, Costs Reduction, and Competition in the Portuguese Mobile Telephony Industry

We study the effect of entry on costs and competition in the Portuguese mobile telephony industry. We construct and estimate a model that includes demand, network, and cost equations. The latter accounts for inefficiency and cost reducing effort. Our results suggest that the entry of a third operator in 1998 lead to significant cost reductions and fostered competition. We also show that failure to account for cost reducing effort leads to biased estimates of competition in the industry. Finally, we also find that our estimated price–cost margins are similar to hypothetical Nash margins, if firms are patient and have optimistic beliefs about the industry growth.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (SEJ2004-00670)Publicad

Housing market spillovers: Evidence from an estimated DSGE model

The ability of a two-sector model to quantify the contribution of the housing market to business fluctuations is investigated using U.S. data and Bayesian methods. The estimated model, which contains nominal and real rigidities and collateral constraints, displays the following features: first, a large fraction of the upward trend in real housing prices over the last 40 years can be accounted for by slow technological progress in the housing sector; second, residential investment and housing prices are very sensitive to monetary policy and housing demand shocks; third, the wealth effects from housing on consumption are positive and significant, and have become more important over time. The structural nature of the model allows identifying and quantifying the sources of fluctuations in house prices and residential investment and measuring the contribution of housing booms and busts to business cycles.House prices, Collateral Constraints, Bayesian methods, Two-sector Models

A chronological literature review of electric vehicle interactions with power distribution systems

In the last decade, the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) has been largely promoted. This development has increased challenges in the power systems in the context of planning and operation due to the massive amount of recharge needed for EVs. Furthermore, EVs may also offer new opportunities and can be used to support the grid to provide auxiliary services. In this regard, and considering the research around EVs and power grids, this paper presents a chronological background review of EVs and their interactions with power systems, particularly electric distribution networks, considering publications from the IEEE Xplore database. The review is extended from 1973 to 2019 and is developed via systematic classification using key categories that describe the types of interactions between EVs and power grids. These interactions are in the framework of the power quality, study of scenarios, electricity markets, demand response, demand management, power system stability, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept, and optimal location of battery swap and charging stations.Introduction General Overview Chronological Review: Part I Chronological Review: Part II Brief Observations Conclusions and Future Works Final Reflections Author Contributions Funding Acknowledgments Conflicts of Interest Reference