Economists' Statement on U.S. Broadband Policy

In this statement, a group of economists assembled by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center makes the following two recommendations to improve the competitive provision of broadband services. First, Congress should eliminate local franchising regulations, which serve as a barrier to new entry. Second, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission should make more spectrum available to private parties and allow them to use it as they see fit or trade their licenses in the market, so that spectrum will go to its highest-valued uses.Technology and Industry

Economic Benefits from Technological Innovation in Microelectronics

Presented on October 28, 2010 from 12:00pm - 01:00pm in the Wardlaw Center - Gordy Room.Kenneth Flamm has been Professor and Dean Rusk Chair in International Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, since the fall of 1998. He had previously been at the Brookings Institution since 1995 as a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program, a position he also held from 1987 to 1993. From 1993 to 1995, Flamm served in the Department of Defense. His positions included Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Economic Security), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary (Dual Use Technology Policy and International Programs). He was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal by the Secretary of Defense. Flamm has served as professor of economics at the Instituto Tecnologico A. de Mexico in Mexico City, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and George Washington University. His service includes work as an advisor to the Director General of Income Policy in the Mexican Ministry of Finance and as a consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, the National Academy of Sciences, the Latin American Economic System, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Congress' Office of Technology Assessment. Recent work by Flamm has examined the development and diffusion of significant technological innovations in semiconductors, measurement of the economic impact of the semiconductor industry on the U.S. economy, the determinants of Internet use by individuals and households, and the economic impacts of Internet use in key applications. He was awarded an A.B. with honors in economics from Stanford University in 1973 and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. in 1979.Runtime: 78:54 minute