Infrastructure-Based Versus Service-Based : Competition In Telecommunications

Unbundling of the local loop (ULL) has seen quite different "success stories" in the various countries across Europe. Although the obligation for the provision of ULL was implemented in the regulatory framework early and mostly parallel to other means of liberalisation, national implementation has been rather heterogeneous. One question of decisive importance for national regulatory authorities (NRAs) was whether to foster service-based competition in the first phase of liberalisation or to focus on infrastructurebased competition. The different NRAs chose to head down different roads. This paper analyses whether the strategy of NRAs has had any mid-term effect on the economic welfare created in the communications markets. It indicates that infrastructure-based competition has a positive effect on innovation. Moreover, infrastructure-based competition appears to be more important for business customers than for residential clients. On the other hand, service-based competition lowers call prices and appears to be more important to residential markets. The results of this study point out the importance of a balanced approach to both types of policies.competition; telecommunication; ladder of infrastructure; ladder of investement; regulatory policies

Socioeconomic Heterogeneity in the Effect of Health Shocks on Earnings. Evidence from Population-Wide Data on Swedish Workers

In this paper, we estimate socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of unexpected health shocks on labor market outcomes, using register-based data on the entire population of Swedish workers. We effectively exploit a Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences design, in which we compare the change in labor earnings across treated and control groups with high and low education levels. If the anticipation effects are similar for individuals with high and low education, any difference in the estimates across socioeconomic groups could plausibly be given a causal interpretation. Our results suggest a large amount of heterogeneity in the effects, in which individuals with a low education level suer relatively more from a given health shock. These results hold across a wide range of different types of health shocks and become more pronounced with age. Our results suggest that socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks offers one explanation for how the socioeconomic gradient in health arises.Health; Health Shocks; Socioeconomic Status; Life-cycle

Community owned fibre optic networks - a sustainable broadband future for rural areas in Croatia?

For a small rural community such as the city of Krk (6.000 inhabitants), the business model for a fibre roll-out is not very promising if it is based on the classical cost-benefit analysis where investments are covered by service revenue generated. The conducted analysis is leading to two main findings - there will be no network operator investing in the roll-out of a fibre access network in the city of Krk and the fibre net-work has to be rolled out by becoming an integral part of the utility of the city. By util-izing the existing network of empty ducts and the facilities of the city owned cable network, the city of Krk has a better starting position than other comparable cities in Croatia. Public private partnership and open access are highly relevant in future elaborations. --optical access networks,community owned,business models,open ac-cess,cost analysis

Socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on earnings: evidence from population-wide data on Swedish workers

In this paper, we test for the existence of socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on labor market outcomes using register data on the total population of Swedish workers. We estimate fixed effect models and use unexpected hospitalizations as a measure of health shocks. Our results suggest large heterogeneity in the effects, where low educated individuals suffer relatively more from a given health shock. This result holds across a wide range of different health shocks and our results suggest that the heterogeneity increases by age. We test several potential explanations to these results. Extensive sensitivity analyses, including a difference-in-differences matching model, show that our estimates are robust to a number of potential threats. We conclude that socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks offers one explanation to why the socioeconomic gradient in health widens during middle ages.Health; health shocks; socioeconomic status; life-cycle

The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Exploring the Role of Skills and Health Using Data on Adoptees and Twins

In this paper, we focus on possible causal mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of human capital. For this purpose, we use both an adoption and a twin design and study the effect of parents' education on their children's cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and health. Our results show that greater parental education increases children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as well as their health. These results suggest that the effect of parents' education on children's education may work partly through the positive effect that parental education has on children's skills and health.intergenerational transmission, human capital, education, health, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, adoptees, twins

Infrastructure-Based Versus Service-Based : Competition In Telecommunications

Unbundling of the local loop (ULL) has seen quite different "success stories" in the various countries across Europe. Although the obligation for the provision of ULL was implemented in the regulatory framework early and mostly parallel to other means of liberalisation, national implementation has been rather heterogeneous. One question of decisive importance for national regulatory authorities (NRAs) was whether to foster service-based competition in the first phase of liberalisation or to focus on infrastructurebased competition. The different NRAs chose to head down different roads. This paper analyses whether the strategy of NRAs has had any mid-term effect on the economic welfare created in the communications markets. It indicates that infrastructure-based competition has a positive effect on innovation. Moreover, infrastructure-based competition appears to be more important for business customers than for residential clients. On the other hand, service-based competition lowers call prices and appears to be more important to residential markets. The results of this study point out the importance of a balanced approach to both types of policies

Socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on earnings: Evidence from population-wide data on Swedish workers

In this paper, we estimate socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of unexpected health shocks on labor market outcomes, using register-based data on the entire population of Swedish workers. We effectively exploit a Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences design, in which we compare the change in labor earnings across treated and control groups with high and low education levels. If the anticipation effects are similar for individuals with high and low education, any difference in the estimates across socioeconomic groups could plausibly be given a causal interpretation. Our results suggest a large amount of heterogeneity in the effects, in which individuals with a low education level suffer relatively more from a given health shock. These results hold across a wide range of different types of health shocks and become more pronounced with age. Our results suggest that socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks offers one explanation for how the socioeconomic gradient in health arises

Pervasive Gaming: Testing Future Context Aware Applications

Over the last few years, many discussions have centred around the issue of interconnection rates and their economic impact on the market. Interconnection charging in Europe is still based mainly on the calling party pays (CPP) principle combined with element based charging (EBC). Due to the convergence of the classical PSTN/ISDN and the IP world to next generation networks (NGN), the different charging principles and systems are being reviewed to determine the optimal solution for the future. In its working program for the year 2008, the Austrian Regulatory Authority (RTR) launched an industry working group on charging principles and systems for wholesale services. This paper highlights some of the central issues of the discussions that have taken place and contains the authors’ views and conclusions .1 Further, the paper identifies possible charging systems, as well as economic assessment criteria for these systems and how the different charging systems may be evaluated with respect to those criteria. Regarding the usefulness of industry working groups, the work has shown that these lead to a higher degree of transparency between regulator and market players as well as a better understanding between the market players themselves. The main drawback is that working groups are time consuming and that it is almost impossible to agree on meaningful outcomes. Regarding the assessment of the charging models it was possible to derive a set of 10 criteria according to which charging systems can be evaluated. There was a rather broad consensus on the delineation of charging models as well as the economic criteria. When it comes to the results of the evaluation, the discussions brought forward very controversial views amongst the participants. No common views could be achieved on which the charging model fulfills the defined criteria in the best manner.Interconnection, NGN, charging principles, CPP, Bill&Keep.

Community owned fibre optic networks - a sustainable broadband future for rural areas in Croatia?

For a small rural community such as the city of Krk (6.000 inhabitants), the business model for a fibre roll-out is not very promising if it is based on the classical cost-benefit analysis where investments are covered by service revenue generated. The conducted analysis is leading to two main findings - there will be no network operator investing in the roll-out of a fibre access network in the city of Krk and the fibre net-work has to be rolled out by becoming an integral part of the utility of the city. By util-izing the existing network of empty ducts and the facilities of the city owned cable network, the city of Krk has a better starting position than other comparable cities in Croatia. Public private partnership and open access are highly relevant in future elaborations

On the Determinants of Underwriting in Swedish Equity Offerings

This thesis studies the choice of floatation method using a dataset based on 703 public offerings in Sweden between 2006 and 2017. A logistic model is utilised to study the determinants of underwriting, an ordinary least square model to estimate the direct cost of floatation, and the cost of underwriting is estimated using the Heckman sample selection model. The results are generally aligned with existing research and suggest that underwriters are providers of signalling in equity offerings, but are for our sample to be considered imperfect in providing certification. In contrast to existing beliefs of shareholder takeup, the likelihood of underwriting is increasing in expected shareholder takeup from subscription precommitments. Our explanation for this is bilateral. On the one side, we argue that risk averse firms can ensure successful offerings by using a combination of subscription precommitments and underwriting. On the other side, we reason that high subscription precommitments indicate concentrations of large shareholders. Accordingly, we propose that underwriting in these equity offerings may be a result of agency problems between shareholders. Furthermore, a rights issue paradox is insinuated in the Swedish equity market. However, we limit our inference to mere indications as opposed to definite conclusions, and emphasise that an estimation of the indirect costs is needed to assert the presence of such paradox. Finally, we find that there are economies of scale of underwriting and that the cost of underwriting is decreasing in the insured share in the equity offering.This thesis studies the choice of floatation method using a dataset based on 703 public offerings in Sweden between 2006 and 2017. A logistic model is utilised to study the determinants of underwriting, an ordinary least square model to estimate the direct cost of floatation, and the cost of underwriting is estimated using the Heckman sample selection model. The results are generally aligned with existing research and suggest that underwriters are providers of signalling in equity offerings, but are for our sample to be considered imperfect in providing certification. In contrast to existing beliefs of shareholder takeup, the likelihood of underwriting is increasing in expected shareholder takeup from subscription precommitments. Our explanation for this is bilateral. On the one side, we argue that risk averse firms can ensure successful offerings by using a combination of subscription precommitments and underwriting. On the other side, we reason that high subscription precommitments indicate concentrations of large shareholders. Accordingly, we propose that underwriting in these equity offerings may be a result of agency problems between shareholders. Furthermore, a rights issue paradox is insinuated in the Swedish equity market. However, we limit our inference to mere indications as opposed to definite conclusions, and emphasise that an estimation of the indirect costs is needed to assert the presence of such paradox. Finally, we find that there are economies of scale of underwriting and that the cost of underwriting is decreasing in the insured share in the equity offering