Australian telephone network subscription and calling demands: evidence from a stated-preference experiment

This paper examines the impact of the subscription-calling rate structure on the demand for residential telephone network subscription and calling. Stated-preference experimental data are used to estimate demand equations. The results indicate that household network subscription and calling demands for the Sydney Metropolitan Area are affected by both rate structure and household socio-demographic variables.Telecommunications demand; Subscription-calling rate structure; Stated-preference experimental analysis; Survey

Economies of scale and scope in Australian telecommunications

This paper employs a composite cost function to examine the cost structure of Australian telephone services. The composite cost model combines the log-quadratic input price structure of the translog model with a quadratic structure for multiple outputs. Quadratic output structures permit the measurement of economies of scale, economies of scope, and subadditivity without prejudging their presence. Model estimates, on Telstra system data from 1926 to 1991, show that the production of Australian telephone services exhibits economies of scope but no ray economies of scale.Telecommunications; production; scale; scope; Australia

Labour and capital saving technical change in telecommunications

The Australian telecommunications sector is being improved and extended through substantial recent investment in intelligent technology such as digital switching, fibre optics, satellite and cellular transmission, and the Internet. These technologies are being progressively integrated with technology from the broadcasting, computer and electronics industries, providing a unified information infrastructure for information transmission and processing. Technological progress embodied in new equipment has the effect of increasing the efficiency of the factors of production. Such efficiency increases can be biased towards a particular factor. For instance, the impact of labour-augmenting technical change is a decline in the cost of labour per unit of production. When such biases are apparent the relativity between the costs of labour and capital per unit of production is changed. In the longer term, technical change can impact on the rate of employment growth and also on the rate of capital accumulation. In this study the Australian telecommunications cost structure is examined for the period 1919 to 1988. To measure labour saving and capital saving technical change a translog cost model is estimated. Multiproduct telecommunications cost studies typically employ the translog cost model (Evans and Heckman, 1984; Roller, 1990a; 1990b; Shin and Ying, 1992; McKenzie and Small, 1997). The translog model places no a priori restrictions on substitution possibilities among the factors of production, and allows scale economies to vary with the level of output.

The cost structure of Australian telecommunications

Since 1991 Australian telecommunications has undergone substantial reform. To a large extent, the economic correctness of pro-competitive policy depends on the non-existence of natural monopoly technology. This paper provides estimates of the Australian telecommunications system cost structure, and tests for subadditivity from 1943 to 1991. Additivity of the cost function after 1945 rejects the natural monopoly hypothesis and supports recent government policy. Diminished natural monopoly characteristics suggest that co-ordination between firms through networking can achieve similar economies as internal co-ordination within a monopoly. This finding is important, given the trend towards network unbundling, and service provision through interconnection.Cost structure of Australian telecommunications

Productivity growth in Australian manufacturing: a vintage capital model

Recent contributions by Hulten (1992) and Gort et al. (1993) indicate a renewed interest in using capital-embodied technology models to understand the sources of productivity growth. An advantage of models with capital-embodied technology is that current productivity is related to the prior time path of investment. This provides a potential dynamic link between past market conditions and current productivity performance. In particular, models with capital-embodied technology provide a possible explanation for the positive relationship between productivity growth and the rate of investment, particularly investment in capital equipment, found in cross-country studies (see, for example, Wolff (1991) and De Long and Summers (1992)). Regressions in the form of the relationships derived from the analysis are estimated using data for a cross-section of Australian manufacturing industries. Variables suggested by the analysis of the vintage capital model contribute significantly to the explanation of differences in average labour productivity growth across the sample industries. However, specific restrictions on coefficient values derived from the analysis are rejected by the regression results. The implications of this mixed support for the application of the vintage capital model to explaining labour productivity growth in Australian manufacturing are discussedAustralian manufacturing; productivity growth

Productivity growth in Australian manufacturing: a vintage capital model

Recent contributions by Hulten (1992) and Gort et al. (1993) indicate a renewed interest in using capital-embodied technology models to understand the sources of productivity growth. An advantage of models with capital-embodied technology is that current productivity is related to the prior time path of investment. This provides a potential dynamic link between past market conditions and current productivity performance. In particular, models with capital-embodied technology provide a possible explanation for the positive relationship between productivity growth and the rate of investment, particularly investment in capital equipment, found in cross-country studies (see, for example, Wolff (1991) and De Long and Summers (1992)). Regressions in the form of the relationships derived from the analysis are estimated using data for a cross-section of Australian manufacturing industries. Variables suggested by the analysis of the vintage capital model contribute significantly to the explanation of differences in average labour productivity growth across the sample industries. However, specific restrictions on coefficient values derived from the analysis are rejected by the regression results. The implications of this mixed support for the application of the vintage capital model to explaining labour productivity growth in Australian manufacturing are discusse

Productivity growth in Australian manufacturing: a vintage capital model

Recent contributions by Hulten (1992) and Gort et al. (1993) indicate a renewed interest in using capital-embodied technology models to understand the sources of productivity growth. An advantage of models with capital-embodied technology is that current productivity is related to the prior time path of investment. This provides a potential dynamic link between past market conditions and current productivity performance. In particular, models with capital-embodied technology provide a possible explanation for the positive relationship between productivity growth and the rate of investment, particularly investment in capital equipment, found in cross-country studies (see, for example, Wolff (1991) and De Long and Summers (1992)). Regressions in the form of the relationships derived from the analysis are estimated using data for a cross-section of Australian manufacturing industries. Variables suggested by the analysis of the vintage capital model contribute significantly to the explanation of differences in average labour productivity growth across the sample industries. However, specific restrictions on coefficient values derived from the analysis are rejected by the regression results. The implications of this mixed support for the application of the vintage capital model to explaining labour productivity growth in Australian manufacturing are discusse

Australian telephone network subscription and calling demands: evidence from a stated-preference experiment

This paper examines the impact of the subscription-calling rate structure on the demand for residential telephone network subscription and calling. Stated-preference experimental data are used to estimate demand equations. The results indicate that household network subscription and calling demands for the Sydney Metropolitan Area are affected by both rate structure and household socio-demographic variables

Australian telephone network subscription and calling demands: evidence from a stated-preference experiment

This paper examines the impact of the subscription-calling rate structure on the demand for residential telephone network subscription and calling. Stated-preference experimental data are used to estimate demand equations. The results indicate that household network subscription and calling demands for the Sydney Metropolitan Area are affected by both rate structure and household socio-demographic variables